


Gundam SEED: Reverie's Edge

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Gundam SEED: FAITH's Edge Trilogy [1]
Category: Gundam SEED
Genre: Alternate Universe, Athrun is a Crazy Driver, Athrun-centric, Author Broke The Laws of Physics Again, Awwww Gundam Noooo, Cagalli and Lacus Also Kick Ass, Car Chase, Gen, Inspired by Char's Counterattack, Inspired by Gundam SEED Destiny: The Edge, Inspired by Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Kira and Athrun Kick Ass, Not GSD Compliant, Possible Time Paradox, There Might Be Some OOC Moments, There's A Lot of Talking and Ass Kicking, Time Travel, Uses Some Elements of GSD, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 03:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 69,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10403226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: With the end of the Bloody Valentine War, an uneasy peace hangs between Earth and the PLANTs, as everyone tries to rebuild their shattered lives.  However, the threat of renewed conflict is reignited when unknown mobile suits suddenly appear, displaced by time and of a different war.  As Kira, Athrun, Cagalli, and Lacus become caught up in the brewing storm, will they be able to navigate and preserve the past that is their future?  Or will the future's war become their present?Not canon compliant with Gundam SEED: Destiny (or associated materials).  Alternate Universe.





	1. Prologue: C.E. 73

**Author's Note:**

> First Publishing: March 2017, AO3  
> Disclaimer: All characters (except for the ones created by me) belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this work of fiction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I watched Gundam SEED when it first aired in Japan. It was not my first Gundam series that I've seen before, but it was the first one to really resonate with me - I even wrote essays about genetics research and military conflicts from this series. About fifteen or so years later, I finally re-watched the series (though not the re-mastered editions), and it's still as good as I remembered it (though GSD... not really). I hope you enjoy my humble offering.

**Prologue: C.E. 73**

 

The nuclear core that powered the mobile suit, its heavy shielding, and the half-melted slag of a cockpit was the only thing recovered from _Freedom_ in the aftermath of the war. It was more than enough to secretly begin rebuilding the legendary mobile suit, along with its counterpart, _Justice_. The fact that it was clear that both OMNI and ZAFT had the plans on how the N-Jammer Canceller devices on both suits worked, and the engineering plans for the suits should have made it easier to mass-produce. Yet, with the treaty signed by both OMNI and ZAFT, overseen by Orb and allied factions, such production of these types of powerful mobile suits never saw the light of day.

There was also the fact that someone or some people had stolen into the heavily guarded facility on the PLANTs that had housed the development of the mobile suits and completely wiped the servers of the OS that had been programmed into the suits. That person or persons had also made the engineering team that had written and built _Freedom_ and _Justice_ disappear. It was for the better, most whispered, that such mobile suits not exist in this time of a hopeful and long-lasting peace.

That is, until the sky fell upon Earth...

~~~

Even though Kira was pushing the main engines of _Freedom_ to the absolute limits, he could see that the many mobile suits that were already tucked beneath the asteroid did not have enough combined thrust to counteract the heavily shielded, built-in engines that had been bored into the asteroid. More mobile suits were needed, the static-filled chatter across the open com channels not withstanding. He willed _Freedom_ to go faster as he saw the countdown clock on his central HUD hit one minute. One minute until the asteroid started to skim the outer edges of the atmosphere...

With an inarticulate and frustrated cry, he slipped under the asteroid, positioning himself a little offset to the left of the center of the mass. The Gundams _Sentinel_ _,_ _Silverbird_ _,_ and _Vanguard_ were already positioned in the center, having arrived at the asteroid with the first wave of mobile suits. Meters away on his right, he saw _Justice_ do the same, engines blazing with as much power as possible. He had already begun bypassing several systems in _Freedom_ to shunt more power into thrust, as he saw many other mobile suits that had been following the two of them, position themselves underneath the asteroid in different areas.

The timer hit twenty-five seconds, and with even over a hundred suits, plus _Freedom_ and _Justice_ , trying to push away the asteroid, sensors still indicated that it was going to enter Earth's atmosphere. As more joined, there was a noticeable dent in the forward momentum of the asteroid. It was starting to slow down...

Ten seconds, and he could already feel the heat increase within his cockpit, as he bypassed all beam weaponry systems and poured it into to the engines. At zero seconds, a temperature spike lit up on his HUD, but he continued to drain all non-essential areas of his mobile suit of power, effectively locking _Freedom_ where it was.

Plus five seconds was when the first of the Astrays, Zakus, and Strike Daggers began to explode from overheating. Communications between mobile suits were incredibly fuzzy and intermittent, but still carried the garbled cries of those who lost their lives. He winced in sympathetic pain, but shoved it to the side – he could not linger on the deaths of those at the moment, not until they stopped the asteroid from crashing into Earth.

Five more mobile suits exploded around him, their cries lost to static as a few stragglers tried to enter the atmosphere and replace them. The forward momentum of the asteroid slowed down even further. “Athrun!” he called out through their private com channel, hoping that his best friend could hear him, “cut life support on _Justice_ sixty percent.”

“I---copy,” was the extent of what he received from Athrun's garbled answer through the channel.

He pulled up _Freedom_ 's life support system, the only remaining item besides the phase-shift that drew power. The nuclear-powered phase-shift armor of _Freedom_ was the only thing that was keeping him alive as the atmosphere burned and sublimated around him. He knew that once he cut life support down, it was the heat that would pour into the cockpit that would kill him first before the armor gave out. He just hoped that his and Athrun's gamble would work.

Alarms immediately blared as warnings popped up all over his HUD with the shunting of over half of the life support power into _Freedom_ 's engines. Nonetheless, as he cleared the screen and silenced the alarms, he saw that the asteroid had completely halted. Agonizing seconds crawled by as the temperature rose in his cockpit, causing his sweat to bead and trickle down his face. Twenty-three seconds after the asteroid was stopped, he saw the indicators scroll one digit backwards.

One digit backwards for several more mobile suits that exploded not a moment later, unable to cope with the stress and heat. As a few more seconds ticked by, another digit was flipped in the opposite direction. Soon, the numbers began to slowly crawl up, just as the temperature inside his cockpit became almost unbearable--

 _Silverbird_ suddenly exploded. It was followed shortly by the violent destruction of _Sentinel_.

Whether it was one voice or many, it didn't matter – what mattered was just how agonizingly raw the cry over the open, static-filled com channel was. Who it came from didn't matter as well – he knew that grief-stricken howl, having heard it countless of times during the war. That same cry of denial threatened to escape from his own lips, but he instead, found himself short of breath while staring at the spot where the two mobile suits used to be. He was not even aware of his peripherals anymore – at the steadily scrolling numbers that ticked upwards and away from Earth...

All he could do was wail against the impossibility of fate bringing those four here, only to have two of them die on the edge of victory; one of them being Athrun's daughter.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	2. Chapter 1: The Memories That Never Died

**Chapter 1: The Memories That Never Died**

_C.E. 96, Junius 7 Debris..._

 

“Kira.”

Kira Yamato looked over from where he had been staring out into the inky expanse of space to see Lacus floating towards him. He gently caught her by her arms and settled her next to him. “Anything?” he asked.

“Captain Ramius said that the sweeps have not discovered anything thus far,” she answered. “We will receive updates in a few hours time, but for now, it is time to go.”

Nodding, both he and Lacus pushed off from where they were and headed towards the airlock that was connected to the Junius 7 Memorial's space station. “I looked in Athrun's room earlier, but he wasn't there,” she said as they floated through the halls of the _Kusanagi_.

“If he's not there, then I think I know where he might be,” he answered, turning down a particular corridor that was opposite of where they were supposed to be going. Lacus silently followed him. A few minutes later, they arrived at a sealed door. Keying in the appropriate code, it slid open, filling the relative silence of the corridor they were in with the noise of mechanics hammering and wielding away.

Entering the ship's vast hangar bay, Kira floated a little up and to the side, looking out at the various Astrays that were housed in the bay. There was also one specialized mobile suit berthed on the right side of the bay, nearest to the airlock that would take it to the launch tubes. It was the newest G-series of mobile suits, or Gundam as he greatly preferred calling the specialized mobile suits that had phase-shift armors, produced by the alliance between Morgenroete and the Junk Guild.

Morgenroete had named the new Gundam _Vanguard_. It was a simple, yet appropriate name. While not as sleek looking as Orb's Astrays or OMNI's Strike Daggers, it was much more bulky in size, similar to a Zaku, and carried quite a bit of armament and shielding. It was also designed to house two pilots instead of the usual one – effectively becoming a mobile command center if needed. It enabled one of the two pilots to gather better data and process it for a faster response in deploying the Astrays if the _Kusanagi_ happened to be caught in a ship-to-ship battle, and could not help manage the mobile suit deployments.

Given the number of mechanics that swarmed it, it was still considered a prototype and had not yet been tested in the field. Kira wished that it would never be, but he was not that naive enough to think that small conflicts between rogue or extremist forces from Earth and PLANT would ever cease. For two years after the end of the Bloody Valentine War, it looked like it would, until that fateful day...

He shook his head slightly as he spotted Athrun on the far side of the hangar, floating near the main walkway. Pushing off the nearest railing, he headed over, glancing back towards where he thought Athrun's gaze was upon. He was not surprised that Athrun was watching the mechanics crawl all over _Vanguard_.

“Athrun,” he called out, catching his friend's attention, as he hooked a foot over the railing to slow and stop himself, before turning slightly to help Lacus stop as well. He turned back and saw his friend shift ever so slightly to descend until he landed on the walkway, facing them. “It's time.”

“Is there nothing that we can do to change their fates?” he heard him ask, frustration and melancholy bleeding through his tone, reflecting the expression upon his face. It was rare, nowadays, to see his friend carry any sort of expression be it sad or happy – not since what happened thirteen years ago...

Kira shook his head slightly. “No,” he said. “Even with Captain Ramius out near L3 and sweeping, her last transmission said that they haven't found anything. Blue Cosmos are either not there yet, or are in a completely different area. None of the sensors that were placed along the path have picked up anything as well.”

Athrun's expression closed up again as Kira saw him glance towards _Vanguard_ for a moment before silently nodding. Not another word was uttered by him as he saw his friend push off, passing both him and Lacus and making his way back towards the entrance to the hanger. Kira wanted to go after him, but Lacus's firm hand upon his right arm told him not to. Not only was today the fateful day that they all had tried to change, it was also Junius 7 Memorial Day, _and_ it was one week before the anniversary of the death of Cagalli thirteen years ago.

Kira still mourned his sister's death, as did Lacus, but they had each other to lean upon for strength. They supported Athrun throughout the years, but he knew that with Cagalli gone, a part of Athrun had died as well. In the two years that Athrun had disappeared immediately after the state funeral held for Cagalli, something fundamental within him had changed. Athrun had returned different; colder, quieter, and more distant. There had been times in which he had seen his friend open up a little, especially when he spent time with his daughter and son, but those days had been far and few in between. Now, today, was a day not only Athrun had to live with in memory again, but also with what they vaguely knew what would happen.

For the past two months, Lacus had discreetly sent the _Archangel_ and her crew to areas where she remembered that elements of Blue Cosmos had come from during those fateful days two years after the end of the war. Still, try as they might, the crew still had not found any inkling of where the asteroid that nearly plowed into the Earth after being transported through time, came from.

Somewhere today, Blue Cosmos would strike, but only successfully send some of their mobile suits, along with four particular pilots, one ZAFT, one OMNI, and two Orb and their mobile suits many years into the past. After that, it was only a matter of when the extremist group would send the asteroid as well. Finally, fate would deem only two of the four particular pilots to survive the trip through time--

Lacus's gentle tug on the sleeve of his suit drew him out of his thoughts as he felt her cover one of his hands that had balled into a fist with one of her own. Silently, she nodded, indicating with her eyes that they should leave. He uncurled his fist and linked hands with her as they floated back towards the hangar bay's entrance. “Thank you, Lacus,” he said.

~~~

Yuki Yamato glanced up from the datapad that was attached via cable to the main interface of the Gundam _Vanguard_. He had seen his parents enter the hangar bay a few minutes earlier, but had not called out to them. He had watched them out of the corner of his eyes while working on the upgrades to _Vanguard_ , as they floated towards where Athrun Zala had been.

He didn't know why Athrun had been in the hangar bay for quite a while, just silently floating on the far side of the bay, seemingly observing or watching everything going on in the bay. Even so, considering that this was the first time in a while that a mobile suit had taken the first berthing on the _Kusanagi_ , Yuki considered it not a stretch to assume that Athrun was curious as to what mobile suit had taken _Strike Rouge_ 's place.

_Strike Rouge_ had been Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Attha's personal mobile suit. He had heard that in the past, whenever the _Kusanagi_ sortied, _Strike Rouge_ occupied the first berthing on the ship. Since Cagalli's death thirteen years ago, the first berthing area on the ship had never been occupied by any other mobile suit – out of respect for the memories that _Strike Rouge_ and its pilot commanded in battle.

Now, Yuki had been extremely surprised when _Vanguard_ had been granted berthing permission to go into this spot. He had thought that the Gundam would be placed somewhere else among the Astrays. Though hat still did not explain the distant body language of Athrun, which spoke of no one approaching him, and his observations of the hangar bay.

Putting the thought aside, he let his data pad go and floated back towards the opened cockpit. Grabbing the lip of it, he hauled himself over and sunk into the cockpit. Settling on the front seat, he pushed part of the set of screens covering the person who was settled into the second seat. “Nicolai,” he said, watching his best friend and cousin continue to type in a rapid fashion, eyes glued upon a screen to his left.

“Nicolai,” he repeated after a few moments of just listening to the rapid-fire typing that sounded almost like a machine gun firing.

“What?” his cousin answered in a short, angry tone.

“He left,” he answered. “He's not in the hangar anymore. You can come out now.”

It was not immediate, but his words had the effect he was looking for from his cousin as the rapid-fire typing died down until there was only the occasional beep or echo of some mechanic hammering something out in the hangar that filled the silence. Nicolai was still looking at the screen to his left, but Yuki had noticed that his hands were curled up into fists and were resting on the keyboard. He mentally sighed, but did not move from where he was.

“Did you find out what he wanted or why he was hanging around the hangar?” he heard him quietly ask.

Shaking his head slightly as he braced himself against the front seat, he said, “No. None of the mechanics or engineers approached him either. Your father looked like he didn't want to talk to anyone.”

“He's not my father,” Nicolai ground out, tightening his fists in anger until his knuckles turned white. “He hasn't been since that day.”

Yuki remained silent. He would not apologize for his words, and he knew that his cousin knew that. Though Nicolai Uzumi Attha looked more like his deceased mother, it was clear – at least to those who personally knew him – that his mechanical, technical, and mobile suit piloting aptitude came from his father, Athrun Zala. The relationship between father and son had deteriorated to a point where Nicolai barely acknowledged his father's presence whenever they were in the same room. When he did, he addressed his father by his name; most often in a cold, indifferent tone.

The estrangement between father and son was borne out of the fact that Nicolai thought his father did not do enough to stop Caridad, or Cari as she was known and called by everyone, from leaving Orb and joining ZAFT. That was further exacerbated by the news only three months after Cari's departure that she was killed in a training exercise for ZAFT recruits. Since then, Nicolai and Athrun's relationship had steadily worsened.

Yuki had only tried once to repair the relationship, and promptly received a harsh chewing out by Nicolai. Yet, even with that, he had made it clear to his cousin that he did not hold a grudge against Athrun and would only support Nicolai to an extent. Cari was missed by all of them, but as time passed, the ache of her loss would heal – just as the ache of losing Cagalli, his aunt and Nicolai and Cari's mother, was still healing.

“Come on,” he said after a moment. “We should at least listen to the speeches.”

“Chief Representative Seiran always says the same thing every year,” Nicolai said, slowly uncurling his fists, looking up at him. “I'm sick of listening to that man's hypocritical platitudes about peace. Call me over when Chairwoman Canaver and your mother give their speeches, please.”

“All right,” he said, deciding to leave the unusual moodiness of Nicolai alone. If there was one other person that his friend hated more than Athrun, it was Chief Representative Yuuna Roma Seiran. Seiran had been unanimously elected to the position shortly after the death of Cagalli, not only because he had been married to her, but also of the support he had from many of the people of Orb.

Yuki had learned early in his childhood from his mother that Cagalli and Athrun were not married. It was not until he was older that he finally understood some of the details behind the Lioness of Orb and the political power she had wielded before her untimely death. Because the stigma of what Patrick Zala had done, Athrun was persona non grata in some parts of the PLANTs. If he had married Cagalli, he would have been exposed to the public, further heightening threats against Cagalli's life. Instead, Cagalli had married former Atlantic Federation Council member Yuuna Roma Seiran to ensure that Orb would never be invaded or destroyed as it had been during the Bloody Valentine War.

There was, however, a good to come of the arrangement: the marriage alliance gave Cagalli a lot of political power. Power in which she used to make sure that peace firmly remained between the main ruling factions of Earth and the PLANTs. It didn't prevent smaller skirmishes between extremes, but it did ensure that those in charge of OMNI and ZAFT did their due diligence to stop the skirmishes.

But as far as he knew, Cagalli and her marriage to Seiran did not produce any progeny. It seemed that it was political in name only – that was it. Three years ago, Seiran claimed that the marriage was not just for politics, and had tried to claim Nicolai as his son. No one knew why Seiran was attempting such a thing, but that had been shut down quite forcefully, by Athrun no less.

That was not to say that Nicolai had not already disliked Seiran before then. Yuki knew that his friend was not fond of the man who was officially called Cagalli's husband since they had been children. He sighed and pushed himself out of the cockpit, knowing better than to nag his friend at the moment. There were just some things about the past that were too late to change.

~~~

“Friends and family...”

“I still can't believe Orb elected this gasbag as their leader,” a young man with curly, short, orange-red hair spoke up from where he lounged on the sofa in the ship's common room. He was wearing the elite red pilot's uniform of ZAFT. There was also a winged pin on the left collar corner of the uniform, signifying that he was a part of ZAFT's Special Forces that answered only to the Chairperson. “Every year, he starts off with a variation on the same speech over and over again... sheesh...”

“It was only because he was married to the Lioness of Orb,” a young woman with stark platinum blonde hair that was nearly silver-white, cut in a bob, stated. She too was wearing the red uniform and had the same pin upon her collar. “He was a nobody and used that marriage to his advantage--”

“He was a former Council member of the Atlantic Federation, Alice,” the other young man within the common room, with black hair and eerily pale blue eyes, said, interrupting her. “That in itself has some power. The fact that he controls Orb should give everyone some pause, but thankfully, it seems like he's only the mouthpiece of Orb with little to no power. At least that's what it looks like so far.”

“What do you think, Lenore?” the orange-red haired pilot turned to look at the fourth and final person in this common room of elite pilots who were all part of the Special Forces branch of ZAFT.

“Gasbag,” the young woman with dark blue hair said, shrugging. “Dalton and Andrew have it right. He's just a gasbag with little to no power, and it corresponds with the latest reports from Intelligence. The Atlantic Federation and some of its people within OMNI are frustrated that he hasn't been able to convince Orb to have closer ties with them.”

“So, anyone mind if I mute it before the Songstress of PLANT and Chairwoman Canaver give their speeches?” Dalton, the orange-red haired pilot, asked, holding up the remote.

No one argued and the pilot happily pressed the button, allowing a blissful silence to descend upon the room. While Lenore's three friends occasionally glanced at the broadcast, waiting for the time when either Lacus Clyne or Chairwoman Canaver would take the podium, she kept her eyes on the broadcast. It was not for the Chief Representative that she derisively called a 'gasbag' that she watched for, but for a particular person that was barely within the cameras' field of view whenever they panned across the dignitaries that sat in the audience.

While many of those in the live audience sat with shades upon their eyes to protect their modesty and tears, the particular person she looked for blended in quite well with the rest of the audience with his shades. Lenore was able to easily identify the person – not by the suit or any other clothing and disguise he was wearing, but solely by how he sat in his seat. Straight-backed and tall that belayed a military training. The fact that General Kisaka, commander of the Orb military force, was sitting next to him this year was a surprise though. The man she searched for in the broadcast each year since her joining of ZAFT usually never sat next to military personnel – it ran the risk of him being exposed for who he truly was in such a public setting.

Shaking her head slightly as the broadcast returned to 'gasbag' Seiran, she tilted her head slightly and quietly sighed. If Seiran's speech was going to be yet another hash on speeches past, then they would be sitting here in silence for at least another fifteen minutes – the man did love to talk and hear himself talk. The fake snores that were coming from Dalton were not helping the mood either.

“Oh! He's saying something different this time!” Alice suddenly exclaimed, snatching the floating remote from the air and unmuting the broadcast.

“... we should strive for the understanding of everyone--”

The sudden blaring of alarms and the flashing red lights of an alert drowned out whatever else the Chief Representative of Orb was saying as the four pilots immediately reacted. They scrambled out of the room and pushed themselves down the corridors of the ship, racing to the lockers to change into their flight suits and get into the mobile suits. Someone or something was attacking the Junius 7 Memorial Ceremony, and ZAFT would not stand for it.

~~~

“All personnel, battle stations! Repeat, all personnel, battle stations! Set condition one! Pilots to your mobile suits!”

Yuki didn't even bother going towards where the pilots' lockers were, seeing that was opposite of where he should be heading – towards _Vanguard_. He had been watching the broadcast with some of the mechanics that had gathered on the floor of the hangar bay when the red alert started blaring. He floated by some maintenance personnel that were casting off the various cables that were still attached to the Gundam. Hooking himself upon one of the smaller fins of the mobile suit, he flipped over and vaulted straight into the cockpit.

“What the hell is going on?!” he heard Nicolai exclaim as he settled himself into the front seat and hit a few buttons. “Yuki-- what--” his cousin began as the cockpit sealed shut.

“Sorry, but we're going to have to take _Vanguard_ out to sortie,” he said, activating a few more panels as the mobile suit sprang to life. It's OS was far from being complete, but for now, what they had would have to do. He had only caught a glimpse of the ZAFT ship in the corner of the broadcast moving, but thought that he had also saw something else near the ZAFT ship moving as well. It didn't matter at this point – the ZAFT ship had seen something, and the alert had went out.

“What, but--”

“Sit down, shut up, and help me, Nicolai!” he yelled as he dialed into the coms and activated the channel to the bridge of the _Kusanagi_. He walked the Gundam into the nearest closed launch tube while saying into the com, “This is Yuki Yamato piloting _Vanguard_ , proceeding to launch platform one.”

“ _Vanguard_?” the launch officer on duty spluttered. “But--”

“ _Vanguard_ , you are clear to launch,” the voice of General Kisaka interrupted the launch officer. “We don't know who's moving it, but a piece of Junius 7 is being pushed to Earth. We're getting reports that ZAFT forces are encountering enemy mobile suits in trying to stop the piece.”

“A piece?!” he heard Nicolai gasp. “How big?”

“Who else is there--” came the launch officer's query.

“Nicolai Attha, secondary pilot. Though the system is not ready for a second pilot yet,” Yuki quickly answered as the ship's airlock hatch behind him sealed shut, enveloping the Gundam in temporary darkness. The area was then quickly depressurized and the long platform to space opened. He saw the launch indicator wink clear and before anyone else could say a word over the com, he announced, “ _Vanguard_ , launching!”

~~~

Kira briefly looked up from where he was, monitoring the deployment of the _Kusanagi_ 's mobile suits from the CIC as soon as _Vanguard_ had launched. He caught Kisaka's brief nod of his head before the man returned his attention to the more pressing matter at hand – evacuating all of the civilians on the memorial station. He glanced over, seeing Athrun seated next to him with an intense look upon his face as he searched and gathered as much data as possible from both the sensors that the _Kusanagi_ possessed, and other sources.

He did not think that Blue Cosmos would attack so early into the ceremony, or so close. Yet, it was the representative ZAFT ship at the memorial who had moved first – not in the direction away from the ceremony, but towards it. Moments later, that was when a rather enormous chunk of the Junius 7 debris field that was between the station and the ZAFT warship started _moving_.

Then came the dropping of the mirage colloid from various mobile suits belonging to Blue Cosmos. And then the chaos of evacuation as the station's defenses came online – it felt all too eerily similar to Heliopolis all those years ago. Kira thought it fortunate that Blue Cosmos didn't even bother shooting the station and instead, concentrated on defending the piece they were moving.

Both he and Athrun had immediately followed Kisaka back to the ship, knowing that Lacus was the calming force needed to help safely evacuate the rest of the civilians. Because most of the space-based personnel and pilots of Orb had been sent with the _Archangel_ to L3 to search for any sign of Blue Cosmos activity, the _Kusanagi_ had been staff with the bare minimum. They also carried a small complement of mobile suits, though that was more for ceremonial purposes than anything else – any more would constitute hostility on Orb's part.

There was also what the memorial and today stood for, and bringing the _Eternal_ and her two mobile suits would have just been completely crass and undiplomatic. Everyone knew that the _Eternal_ was the ship associated with what happened at the end of the Bloody Valentine War, and thus, neither he nor Athrun could sortie with the pilots of the _Kusanagi_. The ship just did not have enough mobile suits. Thus now, his helping with the launch of the Astrays, and Athrun gathering as much information about the battle unfolding to give the pilots every advantage they could get.

He returned his attention to the Astrays launching after _Vanguard_ and as the launch officer took launch platform one and he took the second one. Moments after all the Astrays launched, the door to the command deck slid open with a hiss, and he heard Lacus say, “Everyone has been safely evacuated onto the ships, General Kisaka.”

“All hands,” Kisaka said into the ship-wide com, “Prepare for combat and launch. Civilians, please stay in your quarters.”

“Surely you're not going to attack it alone, General Kisaka?” the voice of Chief Representative Seiran spoke up, as a sudden jolt indicated that the ship was moving forward. The fact that Orb's leader was also present in the command deck surprised Kira as he turned to see that Seiran was standing next to Lacus.

“No,” Kisaka answered, “we're not.” Kira saw him nod towards him and understood what the commander of the _Kusanagi_ wanted. He floated towards the CIC chair, just as he heard Kisaka continue to say, “Begin charging Lohengrins. Kira, see to it that the appropriate weaponry are loaded into the tubes and find me firing solutions on that mass. Alex, any info on it or the enemy forces?”

“Displaying,” he heard Athrun curtly answer as he saw his friend get up from where he was sitting and float towards where the communications officer was. Alex Dino was Athrun's alias whenever in public, and to those who knew who he really was, they strove to keep him safely anonymous. “Cross section analysis shows that this part of the colony was the keystone point that anchored the central cable. ZAFT forces--” Kira saw four distinct mobile suits pop up on the screen, along with their home ship “--are drawing most of the threat from the enemy mobile suits, but there's still a thick screen.”

“Send the info to the _Cygnus_ and _Bartolomeo_ ,” Kisaka said, addressing the respective names of the ships of OMNI and ZAFT that were present at the ceremony.

“Yes, sir,” Kira heard his friend crisply answer. A moment later, Athrun further surprised him by adding, “Sir, permission to take combat control of the mobile suits?”

He saw Kisaka hesitate for a moment as he also caught Lacus briefly glancing down into the CIC, worry lining her normally calm and collected expression. Would Athrun asking for battle management control over the mobile suits change the course of their past? While they all knew that Kisaka had been peripherally involved in the events all those years ago, there was no doubt in any of their minds that Cagalli had told him what happened. Would it make their past worse?

“Do so,” the general answered after a moment. “Helm, take us thirty-by-sixty starboard and get us through this debris field. We need to be in front of the piece. Lohengrin charge?”

“Forty percent,” Kira answered, glancing at the screen that held the charge capacity of the anti-matter gun. “Estimated seventeen more minutes until full charge. Still acquiring firing solutions for the main target.”

Kisaka issued further orders, and those on the deck complied; the battle to stop a piece of Junius 7 from being dropped onto Earth was underway.

~~~

“I'm in!” the slightly tinny voice of Andrew blasted over the com as Lenore winced from the shudder that ran through her cockpit from the impacts of the missiles launched from a Strike Dagger nearest to her. Activating her right hand sabre, she gunned the engines and launched herself towards the Dagger. Swiping up in a feint, her left hand's sabre came spinning around from behind and decapitated the Dagger. Completing the momentum of the spin, the right sabre sliced straight into the engine module of the mobile suit. Gunning her engines again, she jumped away just as the Dagger exploded.

She glanced back just in time to see three more mobile suits explode from Dalton and Alice's attacks as Andrew's mobile suit continued to interface with the strange port they had found on the piece of Junius 7. The engines that were strapped to the thing were protected with shielding that she had never seen before. As soon as they had punched through the various assortment of enemy mobile suits that guarded the a part of the piece, they had found this unusual port.

“--mobile suits, this is the _Kusanagi_ ,” a voice crackled over the shared Orb-OMNI-ZAFT alliance communications frequency that was rarely used. She stiffened for a moment; the voice sounded quite familiar to her ears. “Astray squadron, form up on delta-charlie-nine-six-two,” the voice continued to say. “OMNI Daggers at bravo-charlie-six-four-seven. _Vanguard_ , _Silverbird_ , and _Albion_ , sweep from alpha-charlie-two-three-nine.”

“Hey, wanna let them know that we're here too, Lenore?” Alice asked over the private com channel that linked the four ZAFT mobile suits together.

“Looks like their ships are prepping to fire Lohengrins and need to scatter the enemy mobile suits,” Dalton stated.

Lenore turned, seeing that indeed, the _Kusanagi_ and the OMNI ship, _Cygnus_ were positioning themselves with their aft facing Earth and all batteries facing towards the incoming piece of Junius 7. Their ship, the _Bartolomeo_ , was a little ways away, but was also bringing all guns to bear on another section of the piece. The OMNI and Orb ships had their Lohengrins out, and she could see the tiniest speck of a light that told her that the anti-matter guns were being charged.

“We can babysit Andrew and the data. Go scare the flock and let us know when to bug out,” Alice said.

“I don't need a babysitter,” Andrew groused over the channel.

“All right,” she said as she heard Dalton viciously tease Andrew before turning to destroy another mobile suit attempting to stop them. Not a moment later she flew her mobile suit along the shadows of the the piece of Junius 7, careful to keep her profile low enough that other enemy mobile suits in the area would not see her.

The com chatter from the allied frequency was fast and furious, mostly with the officer from the _Kusanagi_ giving explicit, precise commands to hit the enemy mobile suits where maximum damage could be inflicted, with the minimum amount of casualties. She saw the mobile suits named _Vanguard_ , _Albion_ , and _Silverbird_ fighting as well, though _Vanguard_ looked incredibly odd to her and definitely more unwieldy than the sleek suits of OMNI. Her IFF told her that it was an Orb mobile suit, though it looked like it was not using every armament it looked like it carried.

She did not linger on the strange suit and instead, tapped a couple of buttons to activate all armaments within her own suit. She had to make her shot precise and count as much as possible – she didn't have the armor or the bulkiness of Dalton's mobile suit, or the massive amount of armaments of Alice's mobile suit to withstand a protracted battle. After all, she did have the fastest and most agile mobile suit produced by ZAFT, and she would make it count.

“Surprise, bastards,” she muttered to herself as she zoomed out of the shadows, throttles pushed to maximum, and pressed the thumb triggers on both throttles.

~~~

On the deck of the _Kusanagi_ , the crew squinted and some threw up their hands to shield their eyes as the bright explosion temporarily blinded them. “Radar, what was that?” Kisaka asked even before the light from the explosion died.

“Um... unknown--” the technician began, but then an audible beep caused her to look down as she said, “ZAFT mobile suit. IFF says it's _Sentinel_ \--”

The technician didn't even get to finish her words as a white mobile suit with black and red trimmings shot by the bow of the ship. Kira was not the only one to stare at just how fast the suit was going, as he saw the suit quickly reverse directions, pull out its sabres, and charge right back into the fray. While he remembered piloting the agile _Strike_ , which because of its design, was pretty much the fastest suit created by Morgenroete back during the war, the speed of _Sentinel_ was something entirely different.

“That cleared it!” the officer at the helm said after a moment as Kira heard Athrun immediately issue more orders to the pilots to keep the opening they had, thanks to _Sentinel_ 's surprise attack from behind.

“Charge at ninety-five percent,” he said, glancing down at the screen. “Three more minutes--”

“Sir!” another officer suddenly said, “Sensors are picking up a spike in EM radiation coming from the surface of the piece--”

“All forces, pull back--” Kira heard Athrun immediately say into the general battle frequency, but it was too late.

A blinding light erupted from the surface just as a burst of an ear-piercing whine seared across all frequencies. Kira ripped the headset he was wearing off, as did everyone else on the deck, as he stared out of the viewport in horror. The blinding light seemingly surged forward towards them like a nuclear explosion, but as quick as it had exploded forward, it suddenly retreated, shrinking back into the surface of the Junius 7 piece.

There were barely any of the enemy mobile suits left.

His ears were ringing slightly from just how loud the whine sounded through the headsets, but he realized that that ringing sound was being replaced by a beeping noise and glanced to the side. The Lohengrins were at full charge and ready to fire.

“All mobile suits, report,” Athrun called out into the general battle com.

There was no mistaking the panic and worry in his friend's voice as Kira glanced over towards Lacus to see her with a white-knuckled grip on the bridge observation deck's railing. Her lips were thinned into a line, whether in concern, or just as worried as Athrun sounded, he couldn't tell at the moment. As much he wanted to leave his station to comfort her, he refrained from moving – there was still the piece of Junius 7 to contend with.

“ _Vanguard_ , report,” he heard Athrun say after a few minutes of silence. “ _Vanguard_ , do you copy? _Silverbird_ , report. _Sentinel_ , report. _Sentinel_ _,_ _Silverbird_ , do you copy?”

As the ringing in his ears subsided even further, it was then that he heard the tonal alert that indicated a loss of signal between a mobile suit and the communications officer. Protocol be damned at the moment – he immediately got up from his station and floated over to the communications station. The officer there was hesitant to shut down the alarm or change frequencies, considering just how anguished Athrun looked as he heard his friend continue to try to ping for the three missing mobile suits.

He stopped himself at the back of the officer's seat and gently reached over, shutting the tonal alert down. He then reached over towards Athrun and wrapped his hands around the microphone, shaking his head. His heart ached at just how grief-stricken his friend looked. At the same time, he mentally marveled at just how calm and composed he himself was, considering that his son,Yuki, was among those missing.

Athrun immediately fell silent as Kira pulled the headset off, saying, “It's not your fault.”

He was fortunate that Kisaka immediately took control of the situation and dialed into the battle frequency, saying, “All remaining mobile suits, scatter. Lohengrins are firing in five...four... three... two... one!”

Kira saw out of the corner of his eyes, two blood-red bolts of deadly energy, surrounded by the white-blue energized particles lance out from the _Kusanagi_. It was swiftly followed by the same type of bolts being spat out by the _Cygnus_. About seventy-degrees to their port was the _Bartolomeo_ , firing her most powerful beam weaponry at the piece.

The remnant piece of Junius 7 exploded in spectacular fashion, just as the echoes of a roaring cheer sounded over the headsets. Many of those on the bridge were sighing with relief, but most of them were somberly thanking their lucky stars. For Kira, he glanced over towards Athrun, seeing a heavy, melancholic look settle upon his friend's expression as he saw him turn slightly to stare out at the destroyed piece. He could only imagine what his friend was feeling, but vowed to continue to be there for him as he had done countless of times before.

He too, turned to stare out at the vast expanse, knowing that with all that they had done, the past would stay the past – it could not change, no matter how much they all wished it. It was their past that became the future for the pilots of _Vanguard_ , _Silverbird_ , and _Sentinel_...

...and neither _Silverbird_ or _Sentinel_ , would survive.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	3. Chapter 2: What Is Past, Is Present

**Chapter 2: What Is Past, Is Present**

_C.E. 73, Morgenroete Research and Development Facilities, Orb, Earth_

 

Athrun paused in his typing as his cell phone that was lying on the desk and holding down a few leaflets of paper chimed with an incoming call. Glancing over, he couldn't help but smile slightly as he saw who it was that was calling him. Picking it up, he flipped it open and said, “Are you really that bored from watching the program compile, Kira?”

“No, no,” his best friend answered in a light tone. “I've started looking at what the engineers have designed for the waste-processing facilities, but I figured that I should get something to eat before attempting to design a program to do what the engineers want. Are you free?”

“Sure,” he said, glancing over at a portion of the 3D model on his computer that was not quite finished yet. Unlike the project that Kira was working on, his project was not as vaunted. That did not mean that the project was not well-funded, it was just better left to the shadows and not spoken of outside of the laboratory he was working in.

“Great, I'll meet you in front of Building Seven,” Kira said before hanging up.

Athrun's smile got a little wider as he removed the phone from his ear and closed it. Pocketing it, he saved his work and set the encryption and auto shut-down to run before picking up the leaflets of paper that his phone had been holding down. “Erica,” he said, getting up and approaching the senior engineer of Morgenroete, “here are the preliminary concepts for the new OS to go with the mobile suit.”

“Ah,” Erica Simmons said, looking up from the screens of her own computer, smiling. “Thank you Alex.” She took the leaflets and briefly scanned them before looking up and asking, “Cagal—oops, sorry, Chief Representative Attha called?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head slightly, knowing that with all that they had gone through during the war, Erica was not the only one who still had slight trouble adjusting to Cagalli's title after having known and worked with her for a while.

Even with that slight stumble, he was still grateful that Erica was incredibly conscientious in making sure to always address him by his alias, Alex Dino. That name and the ID card that had came with it, had been given to him by Cagalli after the war. They had all returned to Orb after monitoring the truce and peace talks between the PLANTs and Earth; to settle down and begin rebuilding. He had been extremely grateful to her for allowing him to stay and live in Orb in peace – especially with what happened on Genesis, and with regards to the mess that his father had left.

“Kira called, but I'll be back in a couple of hours to finish up the torso design. Please let me know what you think of the concept when you get a chance,” he continued.

“All right,” she said, nodding. “I'll hopefully have some notes for you by tonight.”

Without further ado, he left, winding his way through the halls until he emerged from the depths of the building he had been working in. While Kira was working on the programming of the systems that would eventually go into the Heliopolis II Project, he stayed more terrestrial and took part-time work in helping Erica Simmons upgrade and improve upon the OS that the Astrays used.

It was for only defensive purposes that he worked on Orb's mobile suits, as stipulated in the treaty that was signed by all nations of Earth, OMNI, ZAFT, and the PLANTs. He and others who worked on the Astrays were will insulated within the project that very few knew what they did and could not say that they were violating the treaty. No one on the project wanted Orb to go through what it went through during the war again.

The big project that caught not only other nations of Earth's eyes and the PLANTs was that even during the rebuilding of Orb, Orb had declared that it would again, send a colony into space – to rebuild Heliopolis. The project was simply named Heliopolis II Project. Though most of its design and construction took place within Morgenroete-owned buildings, Morgenroete was forbidden from even contributing to the project. Morgenroete didn't even protest the public declaration, knowing that it was technically their fault for the destruction of Heliopolis, and the constructions of the phase-shifted mobile suits that escalated the war between ZAFT and OMNI.

Helping with the colony's various systems programming was Kira's full-time job after he graduated with honors from the branch of the technical university he had been studying in at Heliopolis before his education had been paused. Athrun was glad to see his friend in a better, brighter mood than what the war had done to him. The gentle soul and nature within Kira was healing quite nicely, and with Lacus by his side whenever his friend flew back to Reverend Malchio's place, peace seemed like it would last forever.

But, Athrun was not an idealist like his friend. He was a realist; even with a truce, the peace between everyone was uneasy. Hence his part-time job within Morgenroete. The other job he had was completely unofficial, but it allowed him time to spend with Cagalli – he was her bodyguard. Of course, most of Cagalli's time was spent within Council meetings or discussing sensitive information among different Councilors, hence his presence was not always needed. Nevertheless, whenever she went out to visit construction sites that were rebuilding from the war, or flew to other nations to discuss state affairs, he went with her.

There were times where he would visit her whenever she was at her home, just to see her and to give her advice if she asked for it, but those personal, quiet times were far and few in between. She was the leader of Orb, elected to the position shortly after returning to her home country by unanimous vote. She was the Lioness of Orb, as most of the populace, and even sometimes, the media, called her – leading the charge to rebuild and keep the peace in the still-cooling embers of a devastating war.

“Athrun!” he heard Kira call out as he shaded his eyes slightly to see his friend approaching.

“Kira,” he said as Torii flew from its perch upon Kira's left shoulder and settled upon his hand that was shading his eyes.

“Torii!” the bird chirped as he lowered his hand. As soon as Kira got closer, the bird took off again and landed on Kira's right shoulder. Kira then took Torii and deactivated it, tucking the robotic bird into a pouch on his waist belt.

“Anywhere you want to go in particular?” he asked as they walked to his car.

“Miri recommended a place to me last week,” Kira said as Athrun started up and car, pulled out of the lot, and joined into the traffic. “It's on the outskirts of downtown. Apparently, it has the best hamburgers in all of Orb.”

“Hamburgers it is, then,” he said, chuckling as the traffic finally opened up, allowing him to gun the car and fly down the highway. Kira's whoop only further encouraged him to drive the accelerator further down as he weaved around traffic. The short blasts of horns from startled drivers didn't even faze him. Though neither he nor Kira had piloted mobile suits since the end of the war, both of them had kept their flying skills sharp by piloting the occasional skygrasper or shuttle. Neither machine offered what a grounded car did – the wind whipping into and away from their faces, and the thrill of just pushing the edge on a machine.

He only drove fast whenever he was either by himself, with Kira, or with Cagalli. He knew from experience that Lacus was not fond of the way he drove, and thus whenever she was in the car with him, he drove as calmly as he could – though there was that one time in which Kira had noticed his impatience at driving the speed limit on the highway, and would not stop teasing him afterwards.

All thoughts about seeing how close he could take the car to the red was completely dashed as the horizon across the ocean on this waterfront highway suddenly lit up in a bright, but brief flash of light. He immediately slowed down and pulled over to the side, just as other cars who had noticed the same phenomenon did as well. He heard Kira shift in his seat and saw him reach over and turn the radio on, but all they heard was static. A few people had climbed out of their cars, murmuring at what was going on when the faint blaring of the red alert sirens echoed up to the area they were at.

Down on the south bend of the coastal highway was the main naval base of Orb. “Glove compartment has binoculars, Kira,” he said, as he turned to fiddle with the radio, trying to see if any frequency was broadcasting. He saw Kira take the military-grade binoculars out, frowning slightly, and handed it to him.

Ignoring his querying look, he took it and peered through. He turned his gaze towards the naval base and saw that the ships in port were in the midst of casting off. Swinging it back towards where he thought he had seen the apex of the flash of light, he thought he saw a dark speck of sorts, but at this distance, even with the military-grade binoculars, it was not clear.

“Athrun, no signal from the cell towers,” Kira said, as he put the binoculars down and glanced over to see him with his phone out and flipped open.

Just as he was about to tell him to reach under his seat and take the tin box beneath it out, the roar of mobile suit engines caused both of them to look up. Four Astrays soared overhead, and when the sound of their passing finally faded, there were more than just murmurs filling up the area where people had stopped to see what had happened.

“Radio in the tin box under your seat,” he said, as he heard the squeals of more than a few tyres from cars start up. The evacuation of Orb and the battles that the country faced during the war was still quite fresh on many minds – it looked like more than a few were not going to wait for the evacuation sirens to start sounding to get away.

Wordlessly, Kira took the box out from underneath and handed it to him, this time, his frown quite pronounced. There was also a concerned look in his eyes. Athrun knew that once they figured out what was happening, he would have to explain to his friend why he had military-grade hardware in his car as a civilian.

Plugging the adapter into the radio, he tuned the dial to a specific frequency and pressed the button down, saying, “Erica, it's Alex, what's happening?”

“Pacific astronomical services thought what was meteors that would burn harmlessly over the area were wrong,” he heard Erica state over the static-filled radio. “At least two mobile suits have entered Orb airspace and are not responding to hails.”

“Two mobile suits?” he asked, as he caught Kira's surprised look at him, mirroring his own. “Who?”

“Unknown,” she stated. “Colonel Kisaka's called me in. If you're near Takashima Naval Base, I'm going to need you here as well.”

“Roger. On my way,” he said, and snapped the radio off. Handing it to Kira, he met his eyes but quickly looked away. Starting the car again and peeling off from the side of the highway, he said, “Sorry, Kira, but I'll explain later.”

The two of them raced to the main naval base as fast as they could. Because of the situation, there was virtually no ship left in port by the time they arrived. Athrun jumped out of the car, seeing the last speck of an Orb Defense Force battleship disappear on the horizon. He swiped his badge into the reader at the door and ushered Kira in as well.

Passing operations personnel who were hurrying to places he knew not, he swiped his badge into another reader at a door and entered the darkened operations center. “He's with me,” he murmured to the guards standing at the entrance as he saw Erica standing near a console, bent slightly over with a headset on her head. She was pointing to something on the console screen and murmuring into the headset. In the far corner of operations center were a few people also listening in – Representative members from the Council, judging by the darkened coloration of the matching suits they wore.

Surprisingly, or not as Athrun considered it, Cagalli was among them. Fortunately, his attention was diverted when he saw Kisaka approach from where he had been standing, bringing two headsets over. “Ah good, you're also here, Kira,” the colonel murmured as he handed the headsets over. “We've started receiving preliminary footage of the ongoing battle.”

Placing the wireless headset on, Athrun briefly listened to the chatter as he followed Kisaka to where Erica was and asked, “How long until they reach the mobile suits?”

“Not for another ten or so minutes for the ships,” Kisaka answered. “The Astrays will enter the fray in about three. The radio interference from the meteor shower should be clearing up around that time as well.”

“It's grainy, but that's one of the mobile suits that the Astrays managed to capture at the moment,” Erica said, as the controller at the console brought up the short loop that one of the Astrays managed to beam back to either a ship or to the base. “They still can't get a good lock on the other suit – its apparently faster than this one.”

“Is that...” he began, staring at the grainy footage.

“That looks like _Freedom_ 's engines,” Kira finished up for him.

“But that doesn't even look like _Freedom_ ,” he said as he glanced over at Kira before looking at Erica. “What is it doing with _Freedom_ 's engines?”

As far as both he and Kira, along with the others within the Three Ship Alliance, knew, what was left of _Freedom_ had been recovered and taken to the _Eternal_. The entire thing was unsalvageable and thus needed to be junked. He knew that the captain of the _Eternal_ had gotten in contact with the Junk Guild to sell off the parts and pieces – none of which included the engines of _Freedom_. Those had been turned completely into slag, and Athrun knew that Kira had escaped nuclear destruction by the skin of his teeth. _Freedom_ 's back had almost been completely melted by Genesis all the way to the nuclear powered core. Had Kira been a few seconds more within the grazing beam of Genesis, his mobile suit would have blown up.

“The Astrays have reached the mobile suits, Colonel Kisaka,” one of the operations controllers stated. “We're getting more footage and they've already started to broadcast terms.”

Athrun could feel a frown growing as closer, less grainy footage was live-fed into the control center. Murmurs rose from others around the center as he heard Erica say, “That's a modified Astray frame...”

“... and with armaments that haven't even been sent to production yet,” he finished up for her as he heard the Orb Astray pilots continue to broadcast their warning to the mobile suit pilot.

Without warning, there was a sudden boom and crackle over all headsets, that was followed swiftly by a large spray of water splashing onto the mobile suit. Not a few moments later, mobile suit suddenly phase-shifted to a stark grey color and began falling. Two of the four Astrays immediately grabbed the mobile suit by its arms, keeping it afloat in the air. The other two were looking around the airspace, trying to find the second mobile suit.

“There it is!” one of the Astray pilots shouted through the com.

The dark speck that dove in from high in the sky with its back towards the sun moved faster than Athrun thought possible. Even with the glare of the sun shining into the footage as the two Astrays that were not holding the depowered enemy mobile suit, the other two attempted to intercept the speedy mobile suit. It was all for naught as the mobile suit blasted past them, sabres in its hands glowing a sickly pink color.

He thought that the mobile suit would have at least sliced into the Astray pilots it passed to just get rid of them, but surprisingly, it didn't. Instead, it looked as if it only had eyes on destroying the other mobile suit. Either the pilot of the suit was quite skilled, or the mobile suit was nimble enough, or both that even with tow cables being fired at it from behind by the two Astrays, it neatly dodged them.

As it came screaming down at the enemy mobile suit, its coloration suddenly melted into the same kind of grey color that covered the other mobile suit. It's phase-shift capability had run out – along with its power. It dropped like a stone on a parabolic trajectory as its sabres spluttered out as well, unable to complete or reach the enemy mobile suit to slice into it.

The two Astrays dove as fast as they could and about twenty meters before the mobile suit could hit the ocean, they manged to reach it and grab it. Even so, considering how slowed the other mobile suit became, Athrun had already seen enough as he curled his left hand into a fist. He could accept the fact that there would have been some sort of espionage that allowed other nations or even the PLANTs to steal information about the first mobile suit. But the second... that speedy mobile suit – that was almost impossible to believe to have happened in the same manner.

“That can't be right,” he heard Erica murmur, as she shook her head. “We didn't even put this other mobile suit to preliminary concept until three days ago. No one can build a mobile suit _that_ fast.”

“What are you saying, Erica?” Kisaka asked.

“Alex and I were throwing around concepts three days ago to eventually replace the Astrays,” Erica said, taking off her headset as she stood back up and folded her arms across her chest. She gestured towards the footage of the first mobile suit, saying, “Corporate espionage and hacking are something I can see happening for some country to steal the design of the Astray frame and upgrade to the armaments that were recently approved.”

She pointed to the other one, saying, “But this other one... we drew some designs _on paper_ , and one of those designs looks almost like this one. No one else has seen the designs, and as far as I know, they're still locked in the vault. It's impossible for someone to build a suit looking like the ones we penciled within three days, much less put a working OS that allows the suit to punch through the sound barrier without shearing off any limbs. The inertia dampeners alone to make sure that the pilot doesn't get crushed by the g-forces would be an enormous energy hog, and would have to be half-the size of the mobile suit. I don't see anything like that on it.”

“Alex?” Kisaka asked.

“Erica's right,” Athrun answered, keeping his eyes on both Kisaka and Erica. At the moment, he felt that he could not bear to see what either Kira or Cagalli, who was in the corner of the room and hearing everything being said, thought of him. Both knew that he worked on some capacity with the Astrays, but neither knew of the mobile suit design projects he had been working on. He'd rather it stay a secret so he would be allowed to contribute anonymously to it, but now it would not.

“Sir,” a controller spoke up from her console. “The _Ember of Winter_ and her fleet are arriving. Skygraspers have been launched and they've established communications with the pilots. They're both surrendering.”

“Good,” Cagalli suddenly spoke up, much to everyone in the control center's surprise. “Have the Astrays bring the pilots and their machines to the _Winter_ and tell Captain Hattersfield that I will be out there shortly. I want to know which countries decided to violate the treaty and our airspace.”

Without another word or even look over at them, Athrun saw her stiffly walk out. It was only after the door to the control center closed that he heard Kisaka rumble, “The three of you may want to come as well.” Athrun looked up to see that Kisaka was gesturing to Erica, Kira, and him. The colonel then relayed to the control team, saying, “Send the message to Captain Hattersfield and inform her to expect five guests, including myself and the Chief Representative.”

“Yes, sir,” the controller said.

* * *

Two years ago, Cagalli would have impulsively and immediately demanded an explanation from not only Morgenroete's senior engineer, but also from Athrun as to why both of them thought to risk violating the treaty with even writing down prelim concepts for new mobile suit designs. She would have also chewed both of them out, but two years, and a hell of a crash course in politics had tempered her a little.

Still, that did not mean she was not prone to outbursts – she knew that herself and strove to constantly think over her words before she would speak them. Now though, she was sitting opposite of Athrun on the bare-bones military aircraft that Kisaka was flying to the fleet. Kira was sitting next to her, though he, like her, had been quiet since getting on the transport. Erica had not even bothered sitting down with them and had instead, taken a seat in the cockpit.

“We started to design new suits based upon intelligence reports that Kisaka allowed us to see,” Athrun suddenly spoke up as she saw him fold his hands together, but continued to look at the floor of the transport. “Those reports spoke of unknown forces gathering at the remnants of JOSH-A, though it was mostly limited to small military ships of unknown origin. What insignia they had, had been scratched off.”

“I remember reading those reports,” she said, frowning slightly as she clearly knew what Athrun was referring to. “OMNI thought it was pirates or scavengers hoping to collect scraps and the like from JOSH-A. That report was sent by the Eurasian Federation to both us and OMNI's base in California.”

“Then you know it also reported that there were a few mobile suits, specifically ones that looked sort of like Strike Daggers, that were also seen,” Athrun stated, finally looking up, his eyes narrowed slightly. She nodded, noticing that out of the corner of her eyes, Kira had leaned forward slightly, frowning in concern.

“OMNI and Eurasia agreed to launch a joint expedition to verify the report,” she stated.

“Kisaka wanted Erica to run an analysis on the footage that Eurasia captured to see if there was anything about the Daggers that were different.” Athrun paused for a moment, as if collecting his thoughts before saying, “She did find something different, but because the pictures were so shoddy and the report not detailed, she couldn't verify it. She did tell me about her theory, and considering what it represents, we think that someone up there in Alaska might be trying to salvage something of importance there and possibly modify some Daggers with it.”

“The Cyclops System?” Kira asked.

Athrun shrugged. “You said that everything there had been turned into rubble and ruin. Space-based imaging shows that nothing exists up there anymore, not even trees. It even shows the crater where the Cyclops System had been.”

“But that still doesn't explain why you and Erica are designing a new mobile suit,” she pointed out. Kisaka had told her that analysis of the report, and of the range of things that the gathering of possible rogue forces there meant. She had thought the analysis had come from the military, not Morgenroete.

“We went with the worse case scenario, that somehow, someone can turn or integrate a Cyclops System small enough into a mobile suit or even a carrier and easily transport it anywhere in the world or into space,” Athrun said after a moment of silence. “Because most of the casualties at JOSH-A were from those who could not get away quickly, speed was essential to the design of the new mobile suit. We needed something fast to get in, verify the new mobile suit or carrier, and get out before they could fire at it.”

She heard him sigh before seeing him shake his head slightly. “We didn't even start design concepts until three days ago, and had to scrap the idea because the inertia compensator needed to make sure the pilot, Coordinator or Natural, did not die from g-forces being placed on it, would be enormous. It would have completely defeated the purpose of a mobile suit built for speed. There was also the power ratio needed for the speed, which I only realized a day ago, is unfeasible without a nuclear core.”

“So someone built your impossible mobile suit,” Kira quietly stated after a few moments of silence. “Without a nuclear core, and only running on batteries.”

“Someone apparently did,” Athrun agreed.

“And flew it without any issues,” Cagalli said. “That is a problem...”

“Cagalli, I'm sorry--” Athrun began.

“I forgive you,” she interrupted him. “The other Representatives did the same thing to my father when Morgenroete built the mobile suits at Heliopolis. They wanted him to have plausible deniability. They wanted to protect him and tie off the project if it failed without having him or Orb save face. I know why they did that, and I understand why you did what you did. But I'm not my father. So please, Athrun, don't keep something like this from me again, okay?”

The silence that hung between the three of them as they descended from the skies and began landing procedures onto the _Ember of Winter_ was uncomfortable. She saw Athrun nod after a moment, saying, “I won't. I promise.”

As soon as the wheels of the transport hit the deck and they were jolted to a quick halt, the cockpit door slid open and Erica entered the hold. “Kira,” she said, as Cagalli and the others unbuckled the harnesses they were strapped into and stood up. “Would you please take a look at the OS of the modified Astray while Athrun and I take a look at the speed demon of a mobile suit?”

“Will do,” she saw her brother nod as Kisaka came out of the cockpit a few moments later, just as Erica hit the button to open the hatch.

She followed Kisaka forward, and at the bottom of the ramp, they were greeted by Captain Hattersfield, who smartly saluted them before saying, “Chief Representative Attha and Colonel Kisaka, the prisoners have been taken to the cells on the opposite end of the ship where we've berthed the mobile suits. Please allow me to escort you there. Lieutenant McIntyre will take you, Ms. Simmons, and your team to the mobile suits.”

Cagalli nodded and without another glance back at Kira or Athrun, she and Kisaka followed the captain. As they passed sailors and pilots on the deck before heading into the ship proper, she mentally sighed to herself. For the past two years, the military and defense budget had been kept high because of the rebuild, but because most of the cities that had been evacuated or damaged during the war were almost done with general construction, there were talks that the defense budget should be reduced and poured into infrastructure upgrades.

Most of those who served in Orb's fleet and military were veterans of the war, and she could see it in their eyes – they wanted to rest, but yet they also still felt proud in defending their neutrality from any threats. To reduce Orb's military capability, especially in light of the intelligence reports they had received, would put them at a severe disadvantage to possible threats. Still, to increase mobile suit production and build new ones would violate the treaty, but allow them to reduce the budget to put the money into economically bettering the country. There was no way around or through the two problems.

“Have the prisoners said anything yet?” Kisaka asked, bringing her out of her troubling thoughts.

“No,” the captain answered, shaking her head. “But judging from their flight suits, I have to hazard a good guess that they're probably ZAFT and OMNI. The color scheme and cut of the flight suits is not what I remember or know of either group wearing. However, I do have a question about one of the engineers on Ms. Simmons' team.”

“Huh?” Cagalli asked, giving the captain a puzzled look.

“That young man with the dark blue hair,” Hattersfield began, “do you trust him?”

“Yes,” she emphatically answered, as Kisaka nodded in affirmation as well. “With my life. Why?”

“I'd rather you see for yourself, Chief Representative,” Hattersfield answered. “And I apologize if I caused any offense. Only myself, my second-in-command, and the four Astray pilots have seen the two prisoners, and for now, we'll keep it that way until you let us know what you want to do with them.”

Cagalli frowned, puzzled by the captain's words. The nod of understanding from Kisaka told her to caution against speaking her mind at the moment. Something about the prisoners was strange, and she didn't like that it involved Athrun. It was already enough that he had started to design a new mobile suit with Morgenroete without her knowing – but thankfully, it had not gotten past the tossing out concepts stage.

After a few more turns down nearly empty, long corridors, and they finally came upon the cells near the aft of the ship. Two guards stood on the outside of the door that would lead them into the cells. Hattersfield keyed in the code before swiping her badge into the reader. There was a buzz and the door popped open.

The captain entered first, and Cagalli followed. There was a short walk to where the two prisoners were kept, but as they turned the bend, Cagalli stopped where she was as she stared at the two prisoners standing near the front bars of their cells – specifically the female prisoner wearing a variant cut and color of the familiar red flight suit of ZAFT. The young woman who stared out from the bars at her looked nearly like Athrun; with dark blue hair, but instead of the jade green eye color that Athrun had, had hazel eyes.

“Uh... wow,” was all she could utter.

~~~

It was strange, Athrun thought to himself as he reached out and brushed the tips of his fingers across the main left pauldron of the fast mobile suit, and nigh impossible that someone had stolen the designs, written on paper no less, in three days. Never mind that someone had built the damn thing in less than three days. The first issue was annoying, but the second one was of a great concern. He knew that not even ZAFT had the capability to churn out a new and greatly improved mobile suit in less than three days from concept to full construction. Who had built it?

“Alex,” he heard Erica call out to him as he removed his hand from the pauldron and leaned back slightly to see her gesturing for him to go to her. She was standing near the back of the mobile suit. Joining her, she pointed down past the raised platform they were on and asked, “See that disc down there, near the center of the primary engine cluster?”

“Yeah,” he answered, frowning. The shape of it looked familiar, but the size was too small to be it... could it?

“If that's what I think it is... we've got bigger issues than someone stealing your mobile suit concept and building it.”

“An inertia compensator shrunk down to not even larger than the size of a Titan Mark I engine,” he finished for her. “That would revolutionize not just space ship speed , but also mobile suit speed, _and_ gravitational--”

“Alex!” He peered over the railing to see Kira waving his arms towards them. “Colonel Kisaka is asking to see us.”

“Go. I got this for now,” Erica said, nodding towards him before shouting down to Kira below, “Did you see anything unusual about the OS, Kira?”

“I wasn't able to get into it,” Kira answered as Athrun made his way around the platform to the front of the mobile suit and took the smaller elevator down. “It's heavily encrypted.”

That caused Athrun to pause for a moment as he approached Kira. He looked up to see that Erica now wore a concerned expression, but did not say anything else with regards to Kira's statement except to shoo them on to see what Kisaka wanted. “It's encrypted?” he asked as the two of them followed the guard who had told Kira that Kisaka wanted to see them.

“I've never seen anything like it before,” Kira said, shaking his head slightly. “I mean, I remember when Lieutenant LaFlaga told me to encrypt and seal _Strike_ 's OS so that only I was able to pilot it, but this... it's definitely more than what I did to _Strike_. I don't even recognize half of the syntax errors that are being displayed.”

He remained silent. He knew that Kira was much better at programming than he was, Torii and the Haros not withstanding. Hell, the fact that Kira had been the one to single-handily write the original OS to allow Orb's Astrays to greatly improve their performance was testament to his skills. To be unable to crack into the OS of the modified Astray was troubling.

They arrived at the cells a few minutes later, though to his surprise, Cagalli, Captain Hattersfield, and Kisaka were standing outside. He saw the eyes of the captain narrow slightly as she spotted them, but it was the worried look upon Cagalli's expression that greatly concerned him. Something had happened – perhaps the prisoners had made a threat of sorts?

He kept his expression as calm as possible as the guard left them with those outside and left. Moments later, Cagalli nodded to the captain and she unlocked the door. Sensing that they should follow her in, Athrun glanced at Kira and stepped through the door. To his surprise, neither Kisaka or Captain Hattersfield followed them in. The door thumped close and slowly, Cagalli made her way down the hall.

Athrun followed her closely, anger building within him – which ever pilot had threatened Cagalli would pay. As they rounded the bend in the hall, all thoughts of making sure that threats against Cagalli or Orb in general were rectified dissipated in his mind. The anger that had been building within him was also quashed as he stared in utter shock at the prisoners – or more specifically, the female prisoner.

He blinked, opening his mouth once, twice, but no words seemed to be able to form in his mind at the moment or was able to be uttered. His stunned surprise was broken a moment later as he heard the female pilot, dressed in a variant red coloration and design of a ZAFT elite forces flight suit, say, “Oh, shit!”

“You lose, patch farmer,” the other pilot taunted. “You talked first, so they're going to interrogate you first, you genetic cesspool of a freak!”

Athrun flinched at the slurs – it had been a very long time since he had heard either of those being thrown around. The last time he had heard 'patch farmer' or 'genetic freak' being said into his face was back at the Lunar Preparatory Academy, when he had first defended Kira from bullies. It didn't escape his notice though, that the female pilot was incensed by those slurs. Instead of throwing any insults or words back, she had merely slammed both fists and arms on the grating that separated the two cells, startling the other prisoners with the force of her attack.

“Hey, knock it off, or else I'll have the captain gas both of you,” Cagalli shouted, taking a step forward before abruptly turning around. Athrun felt her snatch his hand, spin him around, and half-drag him back down the hall. Following by his side was Kira, with a worried look upon his face.

Just before they got to the cell block's door, Cagalli let go of his hand and knocked on the door. It opened a moment later and she stepped out. He followed, but it was mostly prodding by Kira that he took the steps forward. He was not surprised that Kisaka immediately led them to a small room a few meters down the hall and ushered the three of them in before closing the door.

He found himself looking at the shut door, wanting to go back to the cell block to see the female prisoner again. His mind was still reeling from that encounter, but it had to have been impossible... Apart from the fact that they had the same hair color, the prisoner looked similar to him, with different eye color. It had, no – it was impossible--

“Athrun,” Cagalli's soft and near cracking of her voice as she called his name caused him to turn around. “Did you--?”

“She's not my sister,” he said, squaring his thoughts as the sobering reality settled upon him. Whomever's sick joke this was, it angered him. Patrick Zala may have been his father, and may have taken prejudices against Naturals and the war to an extreme, but even he was no monster when it came to the health and welfare of his family before the Bloody Valentine.

“She can't be my sister,” he repeated, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them and squarely looked at both Kira and Cagalli. “My mother... she had two miscarriages before she manage to have me.” He briefly looked away, mentally bracing himself for what he was about to be said, for it was not something that others who were not residents of the PLANTs should really know.

“It's... it was and still is difficult,” he began, looking back at the two, “for Coordinators to have children. We don't know why, but there are many theories; one of which is that because our genes are modified so much, nature itself is pushing back. Of course, there is also the economical factor that is involved.”

He sighed and looked down at his feet before looking back up. “The population of the PLANTs have been declining since the late second generation was born. Third generation Coordinators such as me will probably see a twenty-percent drop in population during our lifetime, even though arranged marriages through genetic screening and matches are done. That's how my father and Siegel Clyne arranged Lacus and my engagement. But even that is not a guarantee to ensure that the next generation is born.”

“Neither my mother or father wanted me to grow up an only child, but after another miscarriage, the doctors told my parents that if in a miracle, my mother was able to carry another child, there would be a good chance either she, the child, or both would die during childbirth. By then, she was also a little too old to safely carry another child to term. So no, that young woman in the cells is not my sister.”

“Athrun...” Cagalli began, but fell silent, speechless.

“Could...” he heard Kira begin before seeing his friend clench his jaw together for a moment. “Could someone have stolen a fertilized egg...”

“Test tube growth of a human being?” he asked, knowing that if one didn't live within the PLANTs, such Coordinators were not exposed to such knowledge. “That had been considered since the second generation. As far as I know from being taught this, many attempts to successfully grow a child within a mechanical womb were done, but all failed.”

“And as I said before, there is also an economic factor to consider. It's expensive to create a Coordinator, even though the guarantees of selected genes by parents being successfully passed on to the child is not one hundred percent guaranteed. All genetic material screen by potential parents are kept extremely confidential, destroyed if necessary. It's taboo to steal someone's information, and its impossible. Paranoia about Blue Cosmos or other extremist groups stealing such materials, and creating some biological virus or plague to wipe out Coordinators made it so.”

“I'm sorry,” Kira began, looking as if he wanted to say more, but refrained from speaking.

“So this ZAFT pilot...” Cagalli began, but then fell silent, unsure if she should continue with her line of thought.

“Perhaps her parents tried to sequence her hair brown or black,” Athrun suggested, shrugging, “and she just ended up with blue like mine. But still, if you have any medical personnel you completely trust, Cagalli, I would suggest that they do a full genetic profile on her. And profile me as well. Just to be sure we're not dealing with someone's sick idea of revenge.”

“Athrun!” Kira began, looking appalled.

“Are you sure?” Cagalli asked, as he saw worry line her eyes.

Briefly closing his eyes as a faint smile of appreciation quirked up the edges of his lips, he opened them again, saying, “I'm sure.”

“Princess,” the muffled voice of Kisaka that followed the knock on the door, “there's a secured call for you. It's Miss Clyne and she says its urgent.”

“Lacus?” he said at the same time Kira did, worried. Lacus usually called Kira's cell phone, or occasionally his whenever she could not get a hold of Kira due to cell signal strength. He knew that she did call Cagalli at times, but never as a business call and only social. This... this was the first time that 'urgent' and 'Lacus Clyne' had been uttered in the same sentence.

Cagalli immediately opened the door and Kisaka handed her the satellite phone. Due to how it was built and used by the military, only one person could hear through it at a time – it could not be put on speaker. He saw her press the bulky thing to her right ear and say, “It's Cagalli, Lacus. What's the matter?”

Athrun saw her eyes widen slightly before she took a quick glance over at both him and Kira. He shot her a querying look, wondering what that look was for, but she had already returned her attention to the conversation. The occasional nod and affirmation from her didn't do anything to ease his worry, but considering that Cagalli was not shouting into the phone in panic, it made him extremely curious as to what Lacus had called a phone line connected to the military, for. She was definitely not one to raise unnecessary alarm.

“All right, there are transports where we are. We'll fly right out,” he heard her say before handing the phone back to Kisaka and poked her head out of the room. “Captain Hattersfield, I need the fastest air transport you have. I also need you to bring the prisoners into port and transfer them to a secured detention facility. Oh, and cover their faces during the transfer.”

She stepped back into the room as the echo of Captain Hattersfield acknowledging her order floated by. “Kisaka,” Cagalli continued, “coordinate with Erica and have the mobile suits transferred to Morgenroete. And please give her my apologies on the delay of her analysis – I need to take these two to Reverend Malchio.”

“I understand, Princess,” Kisaka said, nodding. “Is everything all right with Miss Clyne?”

“She's not in danger, but she has discovered something strange,” she answered, but left it at that. Whether she had more to say or not, Athrun didn't know, but at least she had confirmed that there was no immediate danger to Lacus Clyne's life. What was it that Lacus had called Cagalli for that necessitated such unusual urgency?

* * *

_A few hours later..._

 

“You're biting your nails again, Cagalli,” the gentle voice of Kira said.

“Habit,” Cagalli groused, sliding a little further down into her seat as she pulled her index finger away from her lips and wrung her hands together. They were nearly to the island that Reverend Malchio lived at with the orphans he raised.

Lacus lived there as well, helping the Reverend take care of the children. Kira, whenever he wasn't needed by the project managers on the Heliopolis II Project, also lived there. Though she was slightly envious of the peaceful life that her brother and Lacus lived with, she knew that he deserved a small amount of peace after all that he had been through. She was just glad that he had found someone as kindred in soul as he was, to spend it with.

“Are you going to tell us what's going on? Or are Athrun and I going to have to continue to guess?” Kira asked after a moment. “I haven't seen you bite your nails since that time when the _Archangel_ was trying to make its way to the Red Sea.”

“I'm not sure I believe it myself just yet,” she defensively stated as she caught Athrun's quick look back at her before he returned his attention to piloting the transport. “She said that two mobile suit pilots landed on the island, asked what year it was, and then told both her and Reverend Malchio that they were from the future.”

“What?” Athrun's disbelieving exclamation filled the silence in the cockpit.

“She would never have called into a military line if it were not serious,” Kira said after a moment.

“I know,” Cagalli answered as a swooping feeling in her stomach indicated that they were beginning to descend.

“I don't see any sign of a mobile suit,” Athrun said, as she looked up and saw that they were sweeping around in a circle before landing. “If there is one, it's most likely hidden in the dense vegetation on the north side of the island.”

Cagalli also saw that their sweep around not only the house that Reverend Malchio, Lacus, and the children lived in, but also of the island, was loud enough to bring Lacus out. None of the children that she usually saw, the last time she had come to the island, appeared. Nor did Reverend Malchio. That was a bit concerning.

Athrun gently set the transport down, though he did not even bother to run through post-flight checks like she remembered him usually doing. The three of them unbuckled themselves from their harnesses and made their way through the small passenger area before exiting the transport.

“Lacus!” she heard Kira say as jumped the last few steps and ran to close the distance between him and her. Lacus was waiting with her hands clasped in front of her, though there was a curious look upon her face.

Both Cagalli and Athrun caught up a few moments later as Cagalli saw a flash of concern cross Lacus's eyes when she briefly settled her gaze on Athrun. She wondered what that look was about, considering that Athrun frowned a moment later, confused as well. “I'm glad all of you were able to come,” Lacus said, leading them up the house. “And I apologize for having to have used the military line to get in contact. Cell signals have been intermittent since the meteor storm passed, but once Reverend Malchio and I found out who the two pilots were, it was important to let all of you know as soon as possible. He's taken the children to another island to give all of us some privacy.”

“The future, Lacus?” Athrun asked as Kira took the lead and opened the door.

Lacus followed him in, as did Athrun, but Cagalli was stopped near the entrance as those in front of her stopped short of fully entering the living room of the house. She stood on her tiptoes and peered over both her brother and Athrun's shoulders as Lacus moved further into the room.

Sitting slightly sprawled on the sofa was a young man who looked either their age or just slightly older than them. He had brown hair just a few shades lighter than Kira's color, with a tinting of pale red, and eyes that matched the color of Lacus's eyes, though he looked as if he could be of relation to Kira.

“Yo,” the young man said, raising an arm quite casually and giving all of them a wave. “Wow... all of you guys look so young! Never thought this would happen, but hey, there's a first time for everything... oh hey, is that Aunt Cagalli back there?”

“Lacus?” she heard Kira splutter, as she saw her brother gape at the young man lounging on the couch. Athrun looked almost as pale as Kira, and was opening and closing his mouth, trying to find words to say as well.

Cagalli managed to step further into the house by nudging both Athrun and Kira over slightly, only to see that there was smile upon Lacus's face. “Aunt?” she asked as she got a better look at the young man who was wearing civilian clothing that did not look like the latest style.

“Mom, Dad,” the young man stated, pointing at Lacus and Kira, respectively. “Aunt,” he continued, pointing right at her. “And Uncle.” That last designation was pointed right at Athrun.

“Yeah, so,” the young man began, not even giving them time to process the information, “somehow me, Nicolai, and my Gundam were transported through time. It's Junius 7 Memorial Day where we come from. Some bastards decided to attack the memorial station and tried to launch a piece of the colony down onto Earth. We sortied and had been fighting before some blinding light blew out all of the Gundam's sensors and then we found ourselves hurtling down through the atmosphere. Managed to get control, though... phew.”

“But since we didn't know what happened, the safest area we could get to without alerting OMNI bases was to where Reverend Malchio had set up his orphanage before he passed away. Turns out, he's still alive... and then when I saw Mom... erm--” the young man scratched the back of his head for a moment “--I guess I should call you Lacus instead... Anyways, yeah, that's when we realized we definitely were not in our 'time stream' anymore.”

“You still haven't told us your name,” Athrun spoke up after a few moments of stunned silence as Cagalli saw him fold his arms across his chest, looking at the young man with suspicious eyes.

“Ah, sorry,” the young man said, sitting up, but decided to hunch over slightly while still carrying a casual grin on his face. “I'm Yuki. Yuki Yamato.” He then immediately leaned back and over towards where Cagalli knew that the kitchen was, saying, “Yo, Nicolai, stop being a wallflower and get out here.”

“You might've just messed up _their_ future and _our_ past by telling them all that, you idiot,” a young man's voice issued from the kitchen area, clearly annoyed.

Cagalli thought she saw movement back there, but she wasn't sure. There was no need to linger on that thought as not a moment later, a young man with periwinkle-colored hair and amber eyes, appeared at the entrance between the living room and kitchen. His arms were crossed over his chest in exactly the same way that Athrun currently had his. She couldn't help but smile slightly – even if the young man were not the same height as Athrun, the expression he carried was almost the same kind of glower that she had seen encompass Athrun's face whenever he was quite annoyed at something.

“Eh, I'm not telling them lottery numbers or sports winners,” Yuki said in the most blasé tone that she had ever heard anyone speak in. “And I'm sure not going to introduce you to your parents and uncle... sheesh.”

“Hello, Mom...” the young man said, unfolding his arms, looking a little less annoyed, especially when his eyes settled upon her. However, an opaque, stiff look overtook him when she noticed him turning his attention to Athrun. “Father,” the young man said in a cold tone.

However, as quick as the frostiness came, it was gone with his next words and replaced by a neutral tone, as he said, “I'm Nicolai Uzumi Attha.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	4. Chapter 3: An Uneasy Peace

**Chapter 3: An Uneasy Peace**

_C.E. 96, Junius 7 Debris..._

 

Kira stepped to the side, as did Lacus and Athrun, to allow several medical personnel to wheel two hospital beds with patients through. Though it would have been more prudent to get those injured to a better and larger medical facility, such as those on the PLANTs, it was hazardous in trying to get any shuttle, or the warships out of the debris field for now. With what mobile suits they all had left, they needed to clean up as much excess debris that had been shifted, moved, or blasted during the fight before anyone was able to safely leave.

Hence now, the three warships were huddled around the station as best as possible, providing physical shielding to any piece that had not yet been collected or diverted away. Both he and Athrun had taken mechanical automatons, originally designed to help lift large materials within hanger bays and do small space repairs, and helped with the clean-up effort. Lacus had remained on the station, helping the medical personnel and comforting the civilians.

He had been initially surprised at the fact that he had not needed to see if Athrun had locked himself away in his room, mourning. Athrun had been the one to find him as soon as the _Kusanagi_ had docked at the station, suggesting that they go help with the collection of the floating debris. He did ask him if he was all right, and that was when he had seen the grief flash across his friend's eyes before being masked again.

Prodding was not something he did, and so he left it at that. Everyone had their own way of dealing with grief, and if Athrun wanted to talk about it later, then Kira would oblige him. He was, however, a little startled with himself at just how calm he still was after seeing his son and the Gundam he was piloting, disappear. There was not even a guarantee that what they did now would safely bring Yuki or Nicolai home – after all, he remembered that how the two returned to their time was because of the time-travel device found within the stopped asteroid.

If they found that asteroid now and destroyed it before it had a chance to go back in time, would they be sealing the fates of everyone who disappeared? Would they create a paradox in time?

He mentally shook his head as the three of them resumed walking down the hall. It had been only a couple of hours since he and Athrun had returned to allow their automatons to charge. He only had a brief moment of respite and not even time to ensure that Lacus was all right from what happened when she had informed both of them that the ship captains had called a meeting. ZAFT had apparently found something.

They arrived at the meeting room a few minutes later and entered to find that the captain of the OMNI ship, along with Kisaka, Prime Minister Stephanopolos of the Eurasian Federation, Chief Representative Seiran, and Chairwoman Canaver were already in the room. The ZAFT ship's captain was not present.

“Captain Valerie Ivanova,” the OMNI ship captain said, walking over and extending a hand towards Lacus. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Clyne.” She shook Lacus's hand, let go, then turned and extended the same greeting to him, saying, “And Kira Yamato, pleasure to finally meet the architect behind the Heliopolis II Project as well.”

Kira shook her hand, nodding as she continued to say, “Please accept my condolences, Ms. Clyne and Mr. Yamato. I heard from General Kisaka that your son was the pilot of one of the missing mobile suits. If there is anything that I can do to help further the search, please let me know.”

“Thank you,” he answered as she let go. “Please accept our apologies for not doing anything more for your pilot of the _Silverbird_ as well.”

“No,” the captain said, shaking her head slightly. “Had there not been a coordination of forces, especially among the mobile suits, I fear that we would not have been able to punch through those enemy mobile suits. We were fortunate to have someone step up to the task.”

“Then please allow me to introduce Alex Dino to you, captain,” Lacus spoke up, gesturing to Athrun. “He was the one who enabled all allied forces to precisely apply the necessary force and allow the ships to fire upon the piece.”

“My and my crew's thanks, Mr. Dino,” the captain said, extending a hand out to shake Athrun's own. Letting go, she gave him a slightly puzzled look for a moment before asking, “You're not with Orb's military are you?”

“No, ma'am,” Athrun answered. “I'm just a mobile suit engineer.”

“Ah, Morgenroete then,” Ivanova said, nodding, though it was clear that she was still puzzled as to how Athrun was able to issue such precise tactics during the battle. However, before she could say anymore, the door slid open.

Kira saw three lanky pilots, two male and one female and all wearing the red uniforms of ZAFT that marked them as elite pilots, walk in. There was an additional attachment on their uniforms, specifically at the collars of a winged insignia of sorts. He wondered what it signified, as he saw the pilots crisply salute Chairwoman Canaver before turning their attention to the others in the room.

The captain of the ZAFT ship entered shortly afterwards, giving a nod in greeting to the Chairwoman, before turning his attention to the room. “You!” Yzak Joule, captain of the _Bartolomeo_ , said in a surprised tone as Kira saw him stare directly at Athrun.

Before Kira could stop him, Athrun took a step forward, saying, “Yzak. It's been a while, hasn't it?”

“I knew that that was your voice I heard over the battle frequency,” Yzak answered, shaking his head slightly. However, his expression turned apologetic as he said in a surprisingly kinder tone, “Lenore Yula is your daughter, isn't she?” Athrun silently and stiffly nodded once. “I'm sorry,” the former pilot of _Duel_ , said.

Kira saw that not only Captain Ivanova looked slightly puzzled at the familiarity in which Yzak and Athrun spoke at, but also the three ZAFT pilots, Stephanopolos, Canaver, and Seiran were also slightly confused. It had only been a masterful stroke of luck that Yzak had not even addressed Athrun by his true name. He wondered if the former Gundam pilot was going to even keep Athrun's identity a secret from the Chairwoman or his pilots.

Before an awkward silence could descend though, Yzak schooled his expression to that on business and walked towards the conference projector that was situated in the center of the room. Kira saw him pull out something from a pocket within his uniform and connected it to the built-in computer. Immediately, three-dimensional images that were mostly unfamiliar to him, but also contained an image of the piece of Junius 7, popped up.

Yzak scattered most of the images to the side and pulled up the Junius 7 piece, and a few diagrams, saying, “From the assessment that we were able to make, it looks like that the piece launched was built and interfaced from an old prototype engine that Blue Cosmos was known to have developed and integrated into various mobile suits. The shielding, though--” he pulled up another set of diagrams “--that's been traced back to a research and development lab on Martius 3.”

“Blue Cosmos _and_ Coordinators working together?” Ivanova asked, looking quite skeptical at the prospect.

“Or a third entity,” Canaver spoke up, frowning. “Some of the mobile suits that we fought against looked similar to designs that our engineers have designed some time ago, except 'upgraded'.”

“I agree,” Kira heard Athrun speak up as he saw him stare at the images with his left arm tucked beneath and holding up his right arm. His right hand was poised on his chin, but there was a clear frown upon his face. The three of them – Athrun, Lacus, and he – knew that it was Blue Cosmos behind it, but they had no definitive proof and thus could not explain their reason if they admitted this at the moment.

“There were at least five modified seventh-generation Astray frames married to the pauldrons and chest plate of a third-generation Zaku, and had engines similar to fifth-generation GINNs that were definitely faster than what a space-based Astray can fly at,” Athrun continued.

“But what about this shielding on the piece's engines?” Kisaka asked, gesturing to the unusual hexagonal shielding that was semi-transparent in appearance, though tinted pink in color.

Kira saw most of the other shake their heads, including Athrun, indicating that none of them had seen such a thing before. However, he knew that Athrun was technically lying – both of them had seen such shielding before, when they had stopped the asteroid from crashing into Earth all those years ago. But it had only flared up in their views when they had initially tried to shoot the engines – hidden by mirage colloids. Unfortunately, others in the room who were old enough to remember the event had not even been close enough to the asteroid, or at been on Earth or the PLANTs at the time. However, even knowing Blue Cosmos was behind it, they never did figure out how the shields worked or were built at that time.

“The pilot of _Meridian_ ,” Yzak began, gesturing to the tall, black-haired and eerily pale blue-eyed pilot, “managed to recover some data concerning the shielding.” He cleared the screen and pulled up several diagrams and schematics. “It's not much, but it is enough for our scientists to begin analyzing the shielding and how it was created.”

“Your scientists?” Stephanopolos began.

“It will be a joint operation,” Canaver interrupted, taking a step forward, before an argument could break out. “One that Orb will oversee, am I correct, Chief Representative Seiran?”

There was a moment's pause before Kira saw the man nod, though he clearly was not happy with being put on the spot. “Orb will oversee the analysis and dissemination of the data.”

“Surely it will not be conducted on Earth--” Yzak began, looking quite incensed.

“Not on the PLANTs--” Ivanova started.

“May I suggest, Chief Representative Seiran,” Lacus suddenly spoke up, her tone quite powerful but with a peaceful quality to it, “that the analysis of what was found on the piece of Junius 7 be conducted on Heliopolis II? It is, after all, neutral territory.”

“Yes,” Seiran agreed, though Kira wasn't sure with the lighting of the room only by projector, if Seiran was annoyed or relieved that Lacus had stepped in to intervene. “That is a good proposal. I would also request that both the captains of OMNI and ZAFT, and their respective ships berth at Heliopolis II until the analysis is complete. That way, there will be no accusations of neutrality being violated, and both of your respective military forces will have knowledge of this shielding and anything related to what happened today at the same time.”

Silence answered Orb's leader's proposal before Stephanopolos nodded, saying, “I agree with the proposal.”

“I as well,” Canaver said a moment later, “but only on the condition that Morgenroete's engineers analyze the mobile suits used.”

“Yes,” Ivanova pipped up. “I would like that as well. If Mr. Dino's assessment is anything to speak of, of the quality that Morgenroete's engineers are capable of, then a team should be conducting the analysis. It's time that we all stop beating around the bush and admit that all of us have built some new mobile suits in the past, under the guise of adhering to the treaty.”

That was a bold statement to make, especially in such company, but surprisingly, no one contested it. Kira did not miss the uncomfortable looks that floated around the room though, especially from the three leaders. He was slightly worried. Since Cagalli's death, contractual defense opportunities between Morgenroete and Chief Representative Seiran had slowly dwindled until the once robust defense supplier had been reduced to only maintaining the old Astrays.

He knew that Seiran never liked Morgenroete, even before he had become a citizen and Representative of Orb – greatly preferring defense companies that the Republic of East Asia used. Morgenroete was also the only defense employer on Earth that employed both Coordinators and Naturals, which didn't sit well with some of the nations that depended on high-quality mobile suits for defense purposes. While Kira knew that it was idealistic for him to hope that Athrun's association with Morgenroete and with Cagalli when she had still be alive was not a factor, he was not naive enough to assume that.

It was only recently that Morgenroete had managed to scrape together enough funds to build a small research station in LEO. They had called it an opportunity to recycle old tech and scraps left behind in the debris field, and had even publicly declared that they would be working with the Junk Guild in recovery and re-purposing. At least at the moment, it seemed that OMNI and the PLANTs had a more favorable view of Morgenroete.

“That is acceptable,” Seiran said after a moment, definitely looking as if that answer had been pulled out of him against his will. “But I will have to put this proposal to allow Morgenroete into Heliopolis II in front of Orb's Council. Once we are allowed to leave, I will have an answer to the nations of Earth and the PLANTs within a week.”

“I accept,” Canaver answered, and a moment later, Stephanopolos agreed as well. Yzak and Ivanova voiced their agreement to the deal.

“What of the strange light, Captain Joule, that emanated from the piece before the ships were able to fire upon it? It seemed to have engulfed not only our missing pilots, but also almost all of those fighting against us?” Lacus asked. “Are there any data on it?”

“Little data, unfortunately, Ms. Clyne,” Yzak answered before gesturing to the pilot of the _Meridian_. “I'll have Lieutenant Andrew Barton speak of that.”

Yzak took a step back and the tall pilot stepped forward, saying, “During the last few minutes of data tunneling before we were told the scatter, my mobile suit's interface alerted me to a strange spike in energy that was building from the core of the piece. It was unrelated to the engines or the nuclear power source that was driving the engines. This was a separate piece. I did a quick analysis of the distribution, thinking that it was some trap of sorts in case whoever did this had sensors on the surface. Initially, it looked as if there had been sensors monitoring the number of enemy mobile suits, and if it hit a critical point, the piece would explode.”

“So instead of destroying all life of Earth, that trap would have been used to destroy everyone at the memorial?” Ivanova asked.

“Yes, that was my initial assessment and assumption made during battle, ma'am,” the pilot respectfully answered. “Under that assumption, I reversed the polarity of the build up and created a bypass to shunt it to the surface, hoping that the energy released would dissipate during expansion. I did not know that whatever that device was, it released tachyon particles instead.”

“Tachyon particles?” Lacus asked.

“Um,” Stephanopolos spoke up, looking slightly unsure of himself before clearing his throat. “I believe that those are 'faster than light' particles. And that if they did exist, someone could theoretically build a tacyhon antitelephone – or basically, a time machine.”

Silence reigned in the room for a few long minutes before it was Kisaka who asked, “Lieutenant Barton, if these particles don't exist, how did you detect them?”

“My mobile suit is equipped with sensors that are attuned to ensure that N-Jammer Cancellers are not present,” Barton answered, “Among those sensors include detection for braydons and luxons – both of which exist and complement the theoretical tachyon particle. Those sensors were active and collected data. They also collected a third set of data that is unidentifiable, hence my assumption that the third set is tachyon particles.”

“So... anyone caught in that field was sent back in time?” Canaver asked.

“Or forward,” Stephanopolos stated. “Who knows.” However, he was not done yet as he asked a moment later, “If whoever instigated this attack has built a time machine and had intended to send a piece of Junius 7 down to Earth somewhere within time, then did we just change our past?”

“None of us would know,” Barton pointed out. “But I wouldn't put it past them to try again.”

“They probably will not try the same thing again,” Kisaka spoke up. “If these people are smart enough to cobble together this much without any of us knowing, then they certainly will try another way. And it might come at any time.”

Even though Kira knew exactly what Kisaka was stating, it was still quite a sobering thought, given that the _Archangel_ still had not found anything yet.

* * *

_C.E. 73, Near Orb Territorial Waters..._

 

Cagalli sighed in slight annoyance as the children who had dragged her away from setting up the dining room and helping within the kitchen went back to what they said was 'assigned chores'. She had wanted to help and thus started to set the table out, but that was when two of the children that Reverend Malchio took care of intervened and dragged her away, saying that “Princesses shouldn't have to set tables.”

That had gotten some laughter out both Kira and Yuki, the latter of whom was at the stove cooking, while Lacus had merely smiled and went back to cutting up the vegetables. Nicolai had merely looked up from his mixing of other ingredients at another counter top, sighed in exasperation, and went back to doing what he was doing. Athrun had not been present for that scene, having excused himself to run post-flight checks as soon as Reverend Malchio had returned.

The second that Athrun had left the house, Cagalli had seen Nicolai almost visibly deflate and lose all coldness to his demeanor. It was obvious that somewhere in the future, Nicolai did not have a good relationship with Athrun. She wanted to ask how that came to be, but considering that it seemed that the young man was not willing to talk much about the future or what happened, she thought it less likely that he would tell her what happened between son and father.

It was also still strange to even consider that she and Athrun had a child, much less a son – neither of them had discussed much about their future. With all things considered, along with the revelation from her former caretaker, Myrna, who told him that Cagalli had been and still was engaged to another, their future together had been 'put on hold'. They still spent as much time as possible together, but--

“Eh, don't worry, it's already pretty crowded in the kitchen and dining room with all those kids and three cooks,” the casually cheerful voice of Yuki said as she looked up to see him flop down on the couch.

“You got kicked out as well?” she asked, giving him a slightly dubious look.

“I left,” he proudly declared. “I know never to get between a man and his bread baking.”

“Nicolai bakes bread?” she asked, curious, knowing that Kira had no such skills. Her brother's skills in cooking leaned more towards stews and slow-cooked meats.

“Best loaves ever!” he said, grinning. “Also, I wanted to give Mom---erm, Lacus and Kira some time to adjust without me butting in every second.”

“Or having Nicolai glare at you,” she said, laughing.

“Yeah, that too,” he agreed, chuckling.

“Is he always like that?” she asked after a few moments of just listening to the noise floating from the kitchen and from outside where some of the younger children were running around, chasing each other. She normally would have joined the younger ones in playing a game or two, but with everything that had happened today, she was feeling quite drained.

Yuki was silent and after a minute, she opened her mouth to apologize. However, that was when he shook his head and looked at her with a seriousness in his eyes that reminded her greatly of Lacus. He moved closer to her, but was no longer sitting casually, and instead, was sitting slightly hunched over, as if thinking about what he was about to say.

“I know Nicolai will probably yell at me for saying this, but it is his story to tell as much as it is mine. He may not want to tell it, not because it could potentially change your future and our past, but only because he doesn't like other people butting into his family's business. But you're family, and even here in the now, I think you have the right to know... though I hope that I can convey it enough to not change the future,” Yuki said.

Cagalli mutely nodded. Whatever happened in the future because of this, she would have to be careful in the details of it, if she ever told Athrun.

“You and Athrun had a daughter as well. You named her Caridad, after Kira's mother, but everyone called her Cari. Nicolai believes that Athrun did not do enough to stop Cari from joining ZAFT. She was killed in a ZAFT training accident about three months after she ran away from home.”

“Nicolai blames Athrun for her death?” she asked, slightly aghast that her future son would blame his father for something that he clearly had no control over. Athrun could never reveal his ties back to the PLANTs or ZAFT, lest he be branded a traitor or worse, extradited. Orb, being a neutral nation, adhered to extradition rules of each nation on Earth and to the PLANTs. Everyone thought he had died when _Justice_ had self-destructed to destroy Genesis.

The only ones who had been granted a reprieve from being charged with war crimes or desertion after the end of the war were the crew members of the _Archangel_. Lacus and those on the _Eternal_ had also been pardoned by the PLANT Council after an extensive review. However, because of the circumstances in which Athrun had joined the Three Ship Alliance, he was the only one who had no such immunity from anything. Hence, her immediately preparing and issuing an alias and new identity card to him to protect him.

“Where the hell was I in all this?” she demanded.

She saw him bite the bottom of his lip before saying, “I've already said enough, Cagalli. I afraid that if I say anymore...”

She huffed out a sigh in frustration, but knew that she could not press the issue. Damn her own inquisitive mind, but she understood the consequences. There was hopefully a question she could ask that could help ease her thoughts. “You called Athrun, 'Athrun'. Not his alias. Does that...?”

“We're all careful to call him Alex in public,” Yuki said, his expression still serious as he nodded. “We were all drilled into saying it since we were young, and we know the reason why, if that's what you're asking. We'll do the same here until we find some way to get back to our time. I suppose we're lucky that at least Nicolai looks more like you than his father. I can pass myself off as a cousin, or something of relation to Kira so people won't be wigged out.”

“Yeah,” she said. “It's lucky. Thanks.”

The front door opened, stopping anymore discussions about the future as Cagalli saw Athrun enter. There were a few dark splotches on his jacket, and beyond him, she could see that the sky was quite thick and grey. The wind was also blowing quite strongly, though not strong enough to drown out the din coming from the kitchen. Just as Athrun closed the front door, the back door opened and the peals of laughter from the children entering in added to the noise.

“There's a massive storm rolling in through not only this area, but also through the main city. Weather services estimate that it could take a few hours for the storm to clear,” Athrun said, taking a seat on the ottoman that was before both her and Yuki, just as a couple of the children tore through the living room, screaming in laughter.

As soon as the noise of the children subsided slightly, Athrun continued, saying, “I took the liberty of contacting Kisaka through the radio and told him that we would wait out the storm tonight and return tomorrow morning. He said he'll let the appropriate people know.”

Cagalli sighed more in defeat than in frustration as she leaned back on the couch, slouching almost in a similar manner to which they had first seen Yuki positioned in. “Thanks,” she said, scrubbing her face with her hands for a moment before letting them drape to the sides. “I guess I should count this as a small reprieve or vacation, though I am not looking forward to the pile up of work when I return.”

“Kisaka said that he'll try to reduce as much of the non-essential paperwork as possible before you return,” Athrun stated, giving her a sympathetic smile.

“Paperless society, my ass,” she muttered, to which she heard Yuki bark in laughter. She had almost forgotten he was still sitting next to her. He was almost as quiet as Kira sometimes was, but she was grateful that he was somewhat more willing to give her some information about the future, however fleeting it was.

* * *

_Debris Belt, Near Junius 7..._

 

“Has the prisoner said anything yet?” Yzak asked as the guard stationed outside of the ship's cell block, peering at a part of the screen where the camera for the cell they had put the OMNI pilot in, was placed. There was a young woman, a mobile suit pilot named Inga Aurelia of OMNI, sitting quite calmly on the slab of metal that served as her bed.

“Nothing new, sir,” the technician said. “She just continues to recite her name and serial number. I've also run the image of the mobile suit that she was piloting through the databases that we have on the ship, but there's no match.”

Two years ago, Yzak would have made a noise of frustration, been a little more angrily reactive, and probably would have spat some slur or insult about Naturals out, but that was two years ago. He was now commander of a scout ship, equipped with the fully repaired mobile suit, _Duel_ , along with two Zakus, and a small crew complement.

The ZAFT inquiry board had seen not to punish him for the actions taken by Rau LeCreuset, but they had seen to it that he was placed far and away from any central operations that they conducted after the war. He suspected that it had to do partially with the arrest of his mother, but at least he had not been summarily drummed out of ZAFT with a dishonorable discharge, unlike Dearka.

He had tried to fight for his friend to remove the dishonorable discharge, but he had been warned by a few higher ups who had been more sympathetic towards his plight that if he pushed it too much, he would be facing more severe consequences. Thus he dropped it, even though it didn't sit well with him. Nevertheless, last he talked to his friend, it seemed that Dearka had found steady work within the manufacturing areas of the PLANTs, repairing old mobile suits.

“Open the door. I'm going to see if I can get some answers,” he said after a moment.

The buzz and audible click of the cell block door being unlocked was heard, and he pulled it open and entered. It slammed close behind him, but even with such a startling noise in the two-celled block, the pilot of the unknown OMNI mobile suit did not even flinch. Nonetheless, she did give him a puzzled look.

“Captain Joule?” she asked after a moment. “What... why are you keeping me here, sir?”

Yzak frowned. He was only a Lieutenant Commander, but yet the young woman spoke as if she knew him. “I'm Lieutenant Commander Yzak Joule of ZAFT,” he said after a moment of studying the woman. “This my ship, the _Valence_ , on patrol in this sector of the Debris Belt. What is OMNI doing here?”

“ _V-Valence_?” the woman questioned. “Oh crap...”

He remained silent, but she did not continue to speak, though he was puzzled at the seemingly strange look of realization that had overtaken her. He waited a few minutes more, but seeing that she was no longer going to say anything, he said, “If you will not speak, then you will remain as a prisoner with ZAFT for an indefinite amount of time.”

“I need to speak with Lacus Clyne!” she suddenly stated. “I'm with OMNI, but they have not violated the treaty! Lacus Clyne will be able to clear this up! Please, I need you to put me in contact with her, Commander Joule!”

If Yzak's frown could get any deeper, it did, and he also narrowed his eyes. Though Lacus Clyne and those of the _Eternal_ such as its captain, Andrew Bartfeld, had been pardoned after a massive inquiry into their actions, he did not think they deserved such leniency. What they did, what they instigated, was the wrong way to go about ending the war – it had caused more trouble than anything else. He believed that Clyne's actions, especially her words of rebellion through the radio, had been a direct cause in the construction of Genesis.

But... had she not escaped the PLANTs with the _Eternal_ and given the pilots of _Freedom_ and _Justice_ those massive Meteor Systems, then the PLANTs would have been completely annihilated. The fact that an OMNI pilot spoke as if Clyne was able to verify her story was suspicious, but also intriguing. He would have to investigate this further.

Without another word to her, he turned and knocked on the door to the cell block. It opened a moment later and he left. Outside, the technician spoke up, saying, “Commander, the bridge relayed a message from Admiral Feng and Chairwoman Canaver. They ask that we bring the pilot and the unknown mobile suit back to Martius 3.”

“Good,” he said, nodding. Though Martius 3 was the furthest of the PLANTs away from Earth and the Debris Belt, it was also the most heavily guarded facility. It was where they had built _Freedom_ and _Justice_. Since the stealing of _Freedom_ , extra measures had been taken to ensure that something like that never happened again.

“At least we'll be able to interface directly with the database they have there and figure out what exactly we have,” he muttered to himself as he floated back down the hall and towards the bridge.

* * *

_Morning, Near Orb Territorial Waters, Earth..._

 

“Soooo,” Yuki drawled as they all finished cleaning up and got ready to return to Orb. “Do you want either Nicolai or I to bring the mobile suit to Morgenroete? I think we have enough power left in the batteries to get us there. I mean, I'm pretty sure that we weren't the only ones who were transported through time here. Last check the _Vanguard_ got for IFF signals, there was at least a ZAFT mobile suit near Orb waters, though it probably buggered out fast.”

“Your puns are not amusing if I'm the only one who knows what the hell you're talking about,” Nicolai answered in an exasperated tone as Athrun saw Yuki chuckle at his own joke.

He glanced over at Kira to see a similar look of exasperation on his face, while Lacus sported a more serene, yet gentle smile upon hers. Cagalli, well, she was just shaking her head. However, the young man's words about the ZAFT mobile suit and IFF signals intrigued him. “You have ZAFT IFF signals?” he asked.

“Yep,” Yuki said, grinning quite proudly. “It was a condition set--”

“Oy... not too much information, motor mouth,” Nicolai interrupted, elbowing the young man not too gently in the side.

“Okay fine, yes, _Vanguard_ has IFF signals. So does every mobile suit that is part of the Alliance,” Yuki said, rubbing his side. “I take it you want to see if you can find other suits?”

Athrun glanced over at Cagalli. This was technically her call, since he was not Orb military and only an engineer with Morgenroete. However, as an unofficial adviser to her whenever he was bodyguarding her, he did give her his thoughts on things that she asked him about. Her lips were pursed as she thought about it – all of them knowing that while it was tempting to go investigate what the suit looked like and operated, would they be affecting anything in their own future or the two's past by doing so?

“If it will help collect all of them and allow us to find some way to get all of you back to your time, then yeah,” she said at last.

“Great!” the young man enthusiastically said, clapping and rubbing his hands together while looking quite excited. “Field trip!”

Athrun thought he saw Nicolai mouth something akin to 'Haumea's knickers' in response to Yuki's cheer, but the young man had already taken Lacus by her hands and was already out the door. There was a look of utter defeat on Nicolai's expression that made Athrun a little sympathetic, but Nicolai then trudged out after a moment. He was most likely going to ensure that Yuki did not blab anything about the future that would change their past.

“Kira,” Cagalli said in the silence of the house, as he glanced over to see her with her arms crossed over her chest. “For the future, my only recommendation is that you do not feed your son _any_ candy until he is legally an adult.”

Kira snorted in laughter, and though Cagalli struggled to keep her expression serious, it was a little too much for her and she too dissolved into laughter. Athrun could not help but grin as well. “Come on,” Kira said a few moments later. “It seems like they're walking, so the mobile suit must be nearby.”

The three of them left, with Kira ensuring that the door to the house was locked. Reverend Malchio had taken the children early in the morning after breakfast to the school that was located on another island. Though the night's storm had lasted longer than what the forecasters had predicted, they and the island school had not borne the brunt of it. Most of the strong parts of the storm had stayed towards the west.

Athrun was able to sleep through storms, but he had not been able to get a good amount of rest last night. He had shared a room with Kira and a few of the orphan boys to ensure that there was enough room for all of them at the house. However, it was not the fact that those two young men had come from the future, but what Yuki had said about the circumstances behind it.

Now that they knew that someone was going to push a piece of Junius 7 from the debris field in the future, if they did anything to prevent that, how drastic of a change would that have upon their own past? He was no physicist, but he knew enough that creating a paradox in time was quite possible right now, especially with any actions they took independent of Yuki or Nicolai. They would have the tread very carefully not only with the two, possibly more people here, but also when and if they could return all of them to their place in time.

The three of them caught up with the others a few minutes later as Cagalli commented, “Huh... so you guys did manage to somehow hide a mobile suit in the north jungle.”

“Magic!” Yuki said, grinning quite widely. “Nah,” the young man said a moment later. “Just some well-placed mirage colloids built into the system and activated via the solar power panels that is supposed to function as an emergency energy gathering device, should we run out of juice. Though I suppose that with last night's storm, it probably doesn't work anymore. If you flew over the island now, you'd probably be able to spot it.”

The six of them continued onwards, though with the route they were traveling through, they were going to pass quite close to the area where he and Kira had fought and nearly killed each other during the war. Athrun was not fond of the area, but he was glad that the area had not been disturbed even after the war. It was a reminder to him of how naive he had been, and how his lack of drive to truly treat Kira as a threat back then had killed Nicol.

At the thought of his dead friend, he glanced over towards the back of Nicolai, who was walking next to Yuki. He briefly wondered if the young man had been named partially after Nicol, but let the thought drop. It didn't matter, even if the young man was quite cold towards him. This was the now, and whatever happened in the future between him and the young man was something that he hoped his future self would change or repair. He didn't know Nicolai as his son--

“Yeah, so I was always curious as to what had been here long ago,” Yuki's comment that was directed at all of them shook him out of his thoughts. He saw that both Yuki and Nicolai had stopped at the cliff edge that overlooked the bay that had formed from the destruction of both _Strike_ and _Aegis_. “Everything here was worn down to strange-looking nubs and mounds of sand when we first saw this place. Now...wow, that looks like a piece of a mobile suit hand--”

“War happened here,” Cagalli suddenly cut in, her tone quite cold and almost borderline rude. “Let's go. We're almost to the jungle.”

“Come,” Lacus said in a gentler tone, guiding both Nicolai and Yuki away as Athrun shot Cagalli an extremely grateful look that mirrored the same one that Kira was giving her. She didn't say a word and only continued on, with the two of them following her. There were just some memories from the war that were still too fresh in all of their minds.

Fifteen minutes later, they entered the jungle. After a few minutes of making their way through thick ferns, they finally got to the clearing that the mobile suit had made. It was knelt on the ground on one knee, half-bent over as if bowing towards someone. While it was not as sleek looking as the _Blitz_ or as bulky looking as the _Buster_ , Athrun thought it looked like a Zaku with the armaments that could potentially rival _Buster_. Though the area where the pilot would be sitting looked a little bigger than normal.

“And here's _Vanguard_ ,” Yuki proudly declared. “She houses two pilots instead of one, and was designed to be a mobile command center for mobile suits, though she's no where near ready for that yet. Nicolai and I sortied a little too early.”

“More like you shoved me back into the second seat when the alarms went off and told me to help you,” Athrun heard Nicolai grumble.

“Impressive,” Cagalli said, thumping a hand against the leg of the suit. “But doesn't it violate the treaty? I'm assuming that the treaty to not build new mobile suits is still in effect in the future?”

Yuki nervously laughed while scratching the back of his head, and Nicolai merely looked at the ground, seemingly finding the dirt-sand mix suddenly interesting. “Just... just say that the Junk Guild cobbled this together when this is flown into Morgenroete, Cagalli,” Nicolai said after a moment, looking back up. “They're not part of the treaty.”

Cagalli sighed but accepted the excuse as Kira said, “This IFF signal? Can we see it? If there are any other mobile suits close, we can mark them and find a way to pick them up as well.”

“Sure,” Yuki said, as Nicolai snagged the foot line that would bring him back up into the cockpit of the mobile suit. It took a few minutes for the young man to retrieve whatever he was going to show them, though they all did hear some echoes of banging and hammering going on.

“The system is not exactly meant to be taken out of the cockpit,” Yuki explained, “but... considering the size of the cockpit...”

Nicolai emerged once again from the cockpit, holding onto a screen of sorts that had a long cable attached to it. However, the young man only got three-quarters of the way down before the cable attached to the screen became taut. “That's it,” the young man said. “I can't get anymore cable out of it.”

“Okay, hold it up and I'll just point to stuff,” Yuki said as he gestured for them to gather around.

Athrun craned his neck up, but fortunately, the angle in which the screen was held was nothing that would induce any sort of neck pain in the aftermath. He saw a map of the island they were currently on and a blinking yellow dot. “So that's us right now,” Yuki said. “Yellow for Orb IFF signals.”

Nicolai slowly panned out from the island until they spotted a red blinking dot right on the island where Morgenroete had their main facility. “Oh hey, looks like that ZAFT mobile suit didn't bug out. Why didn't you tell us you captured it?”

“Need to know information,” Cagalli answered in a short tone. “Where's the signal for mobile suit that it was fighting? It's clearly something that Orb hasn't created, especially since it's pilot was wearing a variant of the OMNI flight suit colors.”

“Uh, OMNI signals are blue,” Nicolai stated, giving Yuki a puzzled look.

“It could have been fighting one of the enemy mobile suits that surrounded the piece,” Yuki said, frowning. “We don't have their IFF signals yet.”

“I can't break into that suit's OS,” Kira spoke up. “Can either of you do it?”

“Wait, _you_ can't break into the OS of that mobile suit?” Yuki asked, surprised. Even Nicolai looked quite shocked. “Okay...” the young man said, nosily blowing out his breath. “I don't even know if we can break into if, if you can't. Who the hell wrote that OS then?”

“Maybe the three of you can take a look at it?” Cagalli suggested. “Anything can be broken into, even though it may take time.”

“Yeah... we can try that,” Yuki answered, but then gestured to Nicolai to continue to zoom out. There were no other signals belonging to Orb, OMNI, or ZAFT within the planet, but Athrun could not help but wonder just how many of the mobile suits that Orb had fought against were here. As the signal map passed through the Debris Belt, it caught the faintest of a signal at the edge of the Belt – blue in color.

“OMNI,” Nicolai identified. “But this is the edge of the field of view for the system. We'll need to get into space to continue scanning.”

“It's moving away--” Yuki began.

“That's where the debris of Junius 7 currently are,” he quietly stated, “and that trajectory looks like it's heading towards the PLANTs.”

“OMNI in ZAFT's hands,” Cagalli said, looking worried. “Pilot not withstanding, they'll have all the ammunition to accuse Earth of violating the treaty, even if both the pilot and mobile suit are from the future.”

“The _Eternal_ and Captain Bartfeld are currently at L4,” Lacus spoke up. “I can contact them and have them intercept the ship before--”

Athrun saw Cagalli shake her as her worried look became more of a thoughtful frown. “Athrun,” she began, though there was hesitation in her tone. “Where were the Morgenroete mobile suits taken to after the _Vesalius_ returned to the PLANTs?”

“Martius 3,” he answered, “but when _Freedom_ was taken from there, electronic and physical security was tripled with biometric sensors and locks installed as well. It will be a heavily guarded facility.”

Cagalli silently nodded, her head bent down slightly as she continued to assess and think about the forward plan. Athrun wanted to volunteer to go infiltrate that PLANT, but given who was present, he knew that all of them would immediately shoot his volunteerism down. It was not a good idea anyways, especially since he did not know the current layout of the PLANT or what measures had been taken since the end of the war.

“Lacus, if you would please contact Captain Bartfeld and have him poke around the PLANTs, it might give us a clue as to what ZAFT is thinking,” Cagalli said after a few moment. “Given Chairwoman Canaver's temperament, I don't think they're going to accuse Earth of violating the treaty, not until they have all the information they need from both the pilot and suit. She's not going to restart the war unless she's absolutely sure that there is a threat.”

“That should give us time to break into the other mobile suit and hopefully get data from it to pinpoint if there are others in the vicinity,” Kira said, nodding in agreement. “If those who attacked the memorial are smart enough to build and launch something without any of us, or even OMNI and ZAFT knowing, then they may try to destabilize the peace.”

“That's my fear as well,” Cagalli said, looking quite grim.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	5. Chapter 4: The Infinite Waltz

**Chapter 4: The Infinite Waltz**

_C.E. 96, Heliopolis II..._

 

There was a sense of peace, of a calm quiet that Athrun had found himself missing after all these years of living on Earth. He had eventually emigrated to the space station that Morgenroete had completed recently, though it was on a part-time basis. Though he knew that the wind ruffling his hair was recycled air, there was a fresh smell to it – unlike the slightly sour smell that always accompanied the air blowing through the Morgenroete space station. There was also a much stronger gravity that rotated beneath his feet, though it was not quite at standard gravity. Even a tenth shy of full standard Earth gravity, one had to jump really hard to even leap higher than normal. It felt just like living in cocoon of the PLANTs again.

“You and the Reconstruction team did an incredible job, Kira,” he murmured as he saw out of the corner of his eyes, Kira approaching and stopping next to him.

“Thank you,” his friend answered as he saw him turn to face and stare up at the sky that was slightly blue with clouds, but showed the other side of the torus colony as well. “But none of us would be here if it weren't for Cagalli.”

“I know,” he quietly answered as he felt an ache echo within his heart.

“Ah, pardon me,” the two of them heard a familiar voice speak up and looked back down to see ZAFT pilot, Lieutenant Barton, approach. “May I have a moment of your time, Mr. Dino?” the pilot asked, holding up a data pad.

Though Athrun knew that he would usually allow Kira to listen into whatever ZAFT or OMNI had to say to him, he recognized that data pad that the pilot was holding. It had been Nicolai's data pad before he had confiscated it in an attempt to curb his son's rebellious nature when he had been fifteen. He had never given it back to Nicolai, since the boy was more resourceful than he had given him credit for, and took the school-issued one and completely reconfigured it to suit his own needs. Furthermore, his son had also reconfigured Cari's school-issued data pad as well.

After Cari had run away from home, he had discreetly sent some inquires to a few contacts in the PLANTs. He had found out that she had successfully enlisted into ZAFT under her given name. Though with no insight into the training group or any way to prevent her from completing the training, he could not stop her.

Then came the news that she had been killed during a training session where the trainees were using exoskeleton armors to perform mobile suit aptitude tests. The inquest had ruled it an accident, but even before he had a chance to properly grieve, a strange message on a disk had been delivered to him. It was heavily encoded and even had a self-destruct sequence after the message had been read.

The information on the disk had stated that his daughter was still alive, but now lived under the name of Lenore Yula. The accident that had happened during the training session had not been an accident at all, but an assassination attempt. It was not because Cari was an Attha, but because someone in the PLANTs recognized her for the fact that she was his, Athrun's, daughter. When Cagalli had still be alive, she strove to keep Cari out of the spotlight as much as possible. It had been pure genetic luck that their daughter looked similar to him – at least that was what the doctor had told them. If anyone who knew him by sight and by his real name ever saw Cari, especially certain delegates from the PLANT Council, then they would know that he was still alive.

The one who saved her that day during training was a young man around the same age as her, and happened to also be from Orb. Andrew Barton was his name, and he had also been the one to send him the message. Barton had guessed Cari's parentage by the fact that Alex Dino was formerly known to be Cagalli's bodyguard, and most likely was the father of Cari.

Cagalli had been adamant in insisting that her marriage to Yuuna Roma Seiran was purely political, and that her bodyguard was the one who held her heart. Athrun had been initially reluctant to participate in such an affair, but it had been Lacus who surprisingly pointed out the politics behind what Cagalli was doing. Cagalli's marriage gave her leverage over a powerful coalition that controlled Earth and OMNI, and keep them at bay. Yet with Athrun continually by her side, it showed that she was not looking to expand Orb's territories, or was on a power grab across the world. He was an engineer of Morgenroete, and she the Princess and Lioness of Orb – a commoner and royalty united in love that depicted just how grounded her view was.

Now though, to keep in contact with the young man who had saved his daughter from being killed, he had purged and wiped his son's confiscated data pad and reprogrammed it. It contained a unique OS and encrypted communications that could only directly connect and talk to one of the data pads that he carried upon him. The last time he had sent a message and certain information to the data pad that the young man held was just before Junius 7 Memorial Day.

“Sure,” he said, his musings taking him less than a second to shake out of as he sent Kira an apologetic look. He saw his friend shrug, indicating that there would be time later when they could discuss things on their minds, and led the pilot away.

~~~

Though Kira returned his attention to the sky, he did turn his head slightly to watch Athrun walk away. A few moments later, he felt gentle arms encircle him from behind and turned to face his wife. “So,” Lacus said, releasing him a second later. “Where do you think Athrun's going?” she quietly asked.

“That was Nicolai's old data pad Lieutenant Barton was holding,” he agreed, nodding as they both turned towards where Athrun and the ZAFT pilot had been. They were much further away now, looking as if they were going to find a private place to talk. “I'd know that data pad anywhere I'd see it. Nicolai dropped it so many times that I had to help him replace the screen and a few internal things, so that Athrun wouldn't yell at him for being so careless with his possessions.”

“We should go see what is happening then,” Lacus said, taking him by the arm and walked forward. “I suspect that Athrun might be trying to change the past without telling us or allowing us to help.”

“Lacus?” he asked, glancing over at her in surprise.

In response to his surprised question, she merely smiled and continued onwards. Deciding to not continue to ask her why she thought what she thought about Athrun, he instead, gave her the benefit of the doubt. She had always been better in reading Athrun's intent and actions after Cagalli's death. She had been the anchor for not only both Athrun and him in their grief, but also for their families. For that, Kira knew he was extremely lucky to have her as a wife and soulmate.

They slowly walked down the same path that Athrun and the ZAFT pilot had taken, careful to remain far and away from the two. As they approached the area where they had seen the two turn the corner, they heard murmurs of low voices. The tone between Athrun and Lieutenant Barton sounded serious and urgent, yet Kira thought he also heard the faintest of relief coloring Athrun's words. Though, to get any closer would put both him and Lacus at the risk of being discovered.

Fortunately, neither he nor his wife had to wait long before they heard the scrape of feet and of the Lieutenant walking away. Kira waited a minute longer until he couldn't hear the footsteps of the ZAFT soldier anymore to approach. However, it was surprisingly Athrun's voice who loudly spoke up from where he had been standing beyond the corner that gave him pause.

“I should explain myself, shouldn't I, Kira? Lacus?”

“How did you know it was us?” Lacus asked as Kira saw his friend appear around the corner, holding a strangely thin, but oval object in his hand. He recognized that object...

“Your footsteps,” Athrun answered, approaching and stopping before them.

Kira had to mentally nod at that – there had been times on occasion that he forgot just how sharp his friend's senses were attuned at, having been though proper military training long ago, and did not allow those senses to dull at all. Public perception of Athrun or rather, Alex, as Cagalli's bodyguard may have assumed that he was adequately trained for the job since Kisaka was sometimes by her side as well. But Kira knew that Athrun took the job and his duties seriously. His friend had not been there just to be Cagalli's lover.

“Is that how you will change our past and their future?” Lacus asked, pointing to the object.

“It's how they were transported to our past.”

Kira blinked in surprise before leaning a little closer to the object that was in his friend's hand. He reached out and Athrun obliged him, handing the object over. Turning it over in his hands, he marveled at just how light it was, and how smooth the shell encapsulated it. Yet, as he examined it closely, there seemed to be no seam of sorts that indicated some sort of craftsmanship or how it was put together.

“That's the time machine,” Athrun explained as Kira handed the object over to Lacus. “Since both of us saw this before, but didn't recognize it for what it was, I drew schematics of what we saw back then and sent it to Lieutenant Barton. I had hoped that somewhere in his service thus far, he would come across scientists on the PLANTs that may have possibly had a hand in building this.”

“Athrun...” Kira began as Lacus handed the object back.

“Barton only knew me as Cari's father, nothing more,” his friend said, trying to reassure him. “He was the one who let me know that Cari survived that accident. I've kept in touch with him since then.”

Neither he nor Lacus were about to berate him for the fact that Athrun didn't even bother telling Nicolai that Cari was alive, mainly for the fact that otherwise, their own pasts would most likely irrevocably change as well. Were it not for the fact that when they had first met Nicolai in the past and saw the intense hatred he had for Athrun, then what inadvertent hints about the future the young man had said and done in their past would have possibly never come to pass.

“He found this while he and the other soldiers were moving the debris away,” Athrun continued. “It was the only thing that was emitting a faint pulse of tachyon particles. It survived the explosion, but because its power source, a separate nuclear reactor, was also destroyed, it's also quite inert at the moment.”

“Athrun,” he said, realizing what his friend intended to do with the object, and reached out to cover it with his hand. “You can't,” he implored, looking at him. “Our mobile suits may be the only ones with nuclear powered cores, but you seriously cannot be thinking--”

“And what gives you the right, Kira, to pass a sentence of death on _my daughter_?” his friend challenged, a flinty look in his eyes. “Whomever are the monsters who created this should be punished and stopped, but we can't even find them after all these years. Why not take advantage of what we know what they're going to do and change it ourselves?”

“Athrun,” Lacus intervened, pulling Kira and Athrun's hands upon the object apart as she took it into her own hands. “Kira. Please stop. This is not the way we should try to solve this. Too many things can happen.”

“Lacus is right--” Kira began, but immediately fell silent as he saw briefly turn his head to the side in sorrow and frustration, while clenching his jaw for a brief moment.

“Do you know what Cagalli—do you know what your sister said to me with her dying breath, Kira?” Athrun asked, looking back at them. “She told me to find a way to change the past, to find a way to save Cari! That was her dying wish!”

Aghast, Kira involuntarily took a step back. Not because Athrun felt that he had an obligation to fulfill Cagalli's dying wish, but because she had given him a dying wish. It was one that he was sure that Athrun was clearly aware that it could potentially change everything they knew about their own pasts. How long had Athrun carried the burden of trying to fulfill that wish, subtly or otherwise? How many times had his friend had even tried to change the past, only to see it lead up to Junius 7 Memorial Day, and still have the transportation in time happen?

He saw Lacus reach out, briefly embracing Athrun in a comforting hug before letting him go. “It's all right, Athrun,” he said, taking a step forward as he made up his mind. “I'm sorry--” he looked over at Lacus and amended his apology “--we're both sorry--”

“No,” Athrun said, shaking his head, “the fault is mine. It's just...” Kira saw him pause for a moment before pulling out the data pad and silently held it out for him to take. He took it and activated it while Athrun continued to say, “I shouldn't be using Cagalli as an excuse for any actions I take. It's irresponsible for me to do so, and I can't do that to her memory.”

Kira frowned, not only at his friends words but also at what he was seeing scrolling on the datapad. “Athrun...” he began, looking up from the data pad before somewhat absently handing it to Lacus. “Is this...?”

“Lieutenant Barton said that he only managed to capture this tiny portion of the 'transmission' before the particles faded,” Athrun answered, nodding. “Yes, it's what you think it is. Which means--”

“We've done this, had this conversation, at least fifty times?” he whispered, half in awe, half in horror.

“Each time with a slightly different outcome for those four children,” Lacus spoke up, looking quite puzzled. “And each time, a difference in who had gone back in time, along with things they tried to try to change one fate for another.”

“With the last one ending with us remembering the death of two of them,” Athrun said.

“That's... that's terrible,” Kira couldn't help but say. “How many times are we stuck in this loop? Surely there must be some way to break this?” As soon as those words left his lips, he felt guilty for what he had said earlier about agreeing with Lacus. “I'm sorry,” he apologized again, as Lacus echoed his sentiments. “This isn't your burden to bear alone. Please... please allow us to bear it with you.”

“Then what would you suggest we do now?” Athrun asked after a moment, looking a little more relieved. “The _Archangel_ still hasn't found anything.”

“We know where the asteroid shows up in the past and drops its mirage colloid,” he said, tapping his chin with a finger. “So we'll go--”

“I'll go by myself,” Athrun interrupted, gently taking the object from Lacus and holding it up. “We only have one, and if both you and I go, then there's more risk of any attempt going wrong. Besides, the coloration of my mobile suit will lend itself to a mirage colloid better than the bright white and blue of yours.”

“And you have better firepower to take out the engines, once we figure out how the shield is created,” Kira said, nodding. “You're right, my mobile suit was never built for pure firepower. But, I think there is a way we can do this without drastically changing our own pasts. We know when and where the asteroid will strike, so we'll transport _Justice_ to that precise area, but wait until everyone has gathered. You will have to make sure that none of us in the past or anyone else enters the asteroid before transporting it back. I'll be waiting with _Freedom_ , and we'll both destroy the asteroid.”

“Will we not forget that Cari died then?” Lacus spoke up, holding up the device. “We'll we forget about what has been written here?”

“Not if I make a recording as soon as I arrive at the past and give it to myself--” Athrun began.

“You can't interact with your self in the past, Athrun,” Kira said, looking slightly alarmed. “We'll already skirting casualty laws and paradox conundrums by doing this. Who knows what will happen if you even see your own self.”

“Then I'll find a way to make sure that we all know what happened in our pasts before we change it,” Athrun stated. “Hopefully, for the final time.”

* * *

_C.E. 73, Orb Territorial Airspace..._

 

He adjusted the transport's trim ever so slightly, even though he could have set the autopilot on. However, considering that there was a mobile suit of unknown make and origin flying a few hundred meters to his starboard, Athrun wanted to be as reactive as possible. Even though he had already called the mobile suit in to Orb air traffic control and got it cleared to enter the country's airspace, he still did not completely trust anything to go smoothly. Spy ships, along with air crafts from OMNI, ZAFT, or other countries could be lingering around, observing the mobile suit.

If any entity, or even Orb itself decided that the mobile suit was a threat, then he needed to punch out of there fast. Kisaka and the Council knew that Cagalli was already on her way back, though he could clearly tell from Kisaka's tone that they had expected him to land the transport at the Council Headquarters, not Morgenroete. However, Cagalli had insisted that the transport land at the defense contractor's main building so that she could get the most up-to-date information from Erica about the other two mobile suits.

As for what Cagalli was currently doing, he didn't know since the cockpit door was closed to the small passenger area, but he could probably guess correctly that she was reviewing reports from yesterday that had not been signed off yet. Or was most likely attempting to bother Nicolai for more tidbit information about the future. Or teasing Kira for the fact that it seemed that Lacus did not like how any of them drove or piloted things, and that she had been surprisingly convinced to ride with Yuki in _Vanguard_ back to Orb.

At the thought of what had happened, Athrun chuckled to himself. He had been slightly annoyed by Yuki's rather adamant insistence that Lacus ride in the mobile suit, but then realized that the young man only wanted to show off his piloting skills to Kira and Lacus. Kira would know what to look for in an external sense, and the rather disgruntled look that Nicolai had given Yuki told him that his assumption was correct.

He didn't know what to think of, of the two young men. Though they were the next generation, they were still complete strangers to him. He had a sense that he could trust them, even though Nicolai kept his distance – especially from him – but as for their intent... Without knowing the situation they came from other than they had responded to an unwarranted attack and thought of ZAFT and OMNI as allies, they were at least willing to 'go with the flow', so to speak.

Though the elephant in the room was still not even touched upon: how the hell would they get these people back to their time without unraveling their own futures?

The door suddenly slid open as he glanced back to see Cagalli enter with a frustrated look upon her face. As she silently took a seat in the co-pilot's chair, he returned his attention to the instruments before him before looking back out the cockpit window. He knew that look upon her face quite well; rather than spend a few more hours getting some rest, she had dove into reading and catching up on her duties. The brief respite that the timely storm from last night had granted her was over.

“It's a rather unattractive looking mobile suit,” she muttered after a few minutes.

He looked over to see that she was staring out towards the starboard side of the cockpit window. “It helps supports the Junk Guild excuse,” he supplied.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I sent Lowe a message about us towing in a mobile suit that doesn't belong to them, but us needing help to cover the excuse. He sent me a smiley face in return.”

“Then it looks like they had a good haul recently,” he said, returning his attention forward.

“How's Kira taking this development with... I guess, these people from the future?” he asked as he heard her nosily sigh.

“Oddly enough, either he's being influenced by Yuki, or Yuki takes after him more than anything,” she answered with a lightness to her tone. “He's just as relaxed as Yuki is about everything. I thought he would be the first one to completely freak out.”

“Are you doing all right?” he asked, looking over towards her to see that she was still staring out towards the right.

“Hmm?” she said, turning her head so that she was now looking at him. “Yeah,” she said, nodding. “I think so. I'm actually kind of glad that there's a ton of paperwork to keep me occupied so I don't have to think about it as much. What about you, Athrun?”

He shrugged, as he took a quick look back at the instruments and focused his attention on it. Adjusting the trim and dialing back the throttle just a hair to account for the unstable patch of air they had passed through, he said, “Nicolai's cold shoulder to almost everyone, and Yuki's rather blasé attitude are rather disconcerting. I'm more worried about what or who built a time machine of sorts, and sent them here.”

“Mmmm, and how we're going to get them back,” she said. “Not to mention, how are we going to find a way to convince Chairwoman Canaver that the OMNI pilot ZAFT captured is not violating the treaty... at least not yet. That's if Canaver openly accuses Earth of the violation.”

He remained silent – he had no advice to her with regards to that situation at the moment. Cagalli's forward actions in having Lacus contact Bartfeld and maneuvering the _Eternal_ to the PLANTs were a good start, but they needed more information. There was also another matter at hand that he had to confront, now that they were in a relatively private setting.

“That ZAFT mobile suit that was captured yesterday,” he began, glancing over at Cagalli to see that she staring forward with a dismayed look, before returning his attention to the instruments.

“The pilot looks similar to you, I remember,” she said. “But...”

“Daughter?” he asked. “My... our daughter?”

Silence answered him, but just as he was about to look at her again, he suddenly felt her left hand gently land on top of his right, which was resting on the throttle of the transport. He looked over to see her silently shaking her head. “I don't think so,” she hesitatingly said.

“Yuki...” she began, but sighed as she paused. “He told me that we did have a daughter. She ran away from home to join ZAFT and was killed in a training accident. That ZAFT pilot we captured...”

“Then both she and I should still do the genetic profiles,” he said after she fell silent. “Could still be a trap of sorts, then. Possibly meant to be sprung at a later date in their future?”

“And if it is?” she asked. “What do we do with that information?”

He looked away and focused his eyes back on the horizon. “I don't know, Cagalli. I honestly do not know.”

* * *

_A few hours later..._

 

Whether it was to savor the last of her brief respite from her duties as leader of Orb, or just because she wanted to wait for Athrun to complete his post-flight checks, Kira didn't open the main door yet. He could see out of the small windows that several members of the Council impatient about Cagalli's delay in disembarking. A couple of Morgenroete engineers were there as well, Erica included, but most of the engineers were at the main landing pad where _Vanguard_ was coming in to land.

He glanced over to his left to see Nicolai standing hunched over one of the seats, looking nonchalant. The young man was not standing close enough to the windows to have anyone attempting to look in see him, but it was clear to Kira that he was waiting quite patiently. Nicolai had said barely any words to either he or Cagalli during the entire flight, and had passed the hours by staring out the window or sleeping. Kira thought that the young man would have at least taken the time to get to know his mother a little better, even if it was her past self.

The cockpit door slid open, and Kira looked beyond Nicolai to see Athrun enter, but pause for a moment as a faint smile appeared on his face at just what Cagalli was doing. Kira could not help but laugh a little as his gaze strayed to his sister – she was laying haphazardly across two seats, with her legs draped over the aisle-side arm rest and her right arm across her eyes.

“I don't want to return to work,” she muttered as Kira saw Athrun stop and gently prod her draped legs.

“They're going to storm the transport if you don't come out soon, Cagalli,” Kira said, glancing back out the window for a moment.

“Just tell them I'm airsick or something,” she groused, refusing to move from where she was.

“You're a mobile suit pilot,” he answered. “I don't think that is a valid excuse. Besides, the quicker you meet with those of the Council who've gathered to meet you here, the quicker you can make an excuse to come join us underground.”

“Fine,” she said at last, removing her arm from her eyes and sat up. Kira saw Athrun extend a hand out to help her stand, and she whispered a grateful thank you before brushing herself down. “I've made Kisaka suffer a little too long with the Council. I owe him that much.”

As he helped Athrun unlock and push the main door open, he pressed a button to mechanically unfold the stairs as he saw Athrun take a very quickly look around, assessing for any threats. He glanced back to see Cagalli sigh, square her expression to the most neutral of looks, and marched forward.

She descended, but neither he, nor Nicolai who had shifted slightly from where he was except to peek out of the entrance, moved from where they were. Athrun took a step out, but also remained where he was as an enthusiastically grateful voice shouted, “Cagalli!”

Kira blinked in utter surprise as he saw a tall, purple-haired man with dark blue eyes step out from the cluster of Council members and rush up to embrace her. “Thank goodness you're all right! When I heard about the battle out near Enewetak and then you not returning until today--”

“Yuuna...” he heard Cagalli protest as the man finally let her go, but glanced over to see that Athrun was not moving from where he was standing. In fact, there was a crestfallen look upon his friend's face that alarmed him. He returned his gaze to Cagalli and saw that the other Council members were in approaching her, about to engulf her in their midst as the purple-haired man casually draped a rather possessive arm around Cagalli's shoulders. Kisaka and Erica were lingering on the outer edge, but he could not read what they felt about the situation.

“Don't, Kira,” he heard Athrun softly say just before he could take a step down the stairs, completely baffled at his sister's and that stranger's actions.

“Alex,” Kira heard the man call out to Athrun as he saw him turn slightly while guiding Cagalli away, “your services as Cagalli's guard are no longer required for now, now that she has returned safely.”

Athrun said nothing in response to that rather rude and blunt dismissal. Kira did see him wait a few moments more as the entourage dwindled before he finally descended. On the ground, the other engineer who had been waiting with Erica immediately approached and handed him a data pad. Kira followed after his friend, watching him as he conversed quietly with the engineer before they started towards where the landed _Vanguard_ was about to be taken underground.

He heard Nicolai follow him. He glanced back and saw that the young man had a beanie on his head to hide most of his hair and was also wearing fake glasses. The fact that Nicolai was wearing a disguise made him worried – the young man did look similar to Cagalli, but not enough that one could put two and two together with a quick glance at him. Was this man who embraced Cagalli someone they had to worry about in the future?

It wasn't until the Morgenroete engineer ran off to go do something else that Kira caught up and asked, “Athrun, who was that Representative?”

“Yuuna Roma Seiran,” he heard his friend answer with absolutely no emotional inflection in his tone. “Cagalli's betrothed. Their engagement was arranged and agreed upon by their fathers three years ago. It was never annulled.”

“Athrun...” he began, but found himself at a loss of words.

He couldn't begin to comprehend what his friend was feeling. Athrun's own engagement to Lacus had been annulled the moment Patrick Zala had declared both Lacus and Lacus's father traitors. Kira had thought Cagalli and Athrun were an extremely good match for each other, and had even occasionally made up any excuse he could to give them time alone. When had his friend found out about Cagalli's engagement? Why hadn't either of them told him about it? How many times had Athrun had to watch that Representative put his arms around her?

“And it seems that Representative Seiran has a role to play in the future, doesn't he?” Athrun softly asked, though it sounded more like a statement to Kira as he saw him turn slightly without breaking stride to look at Nicolai before looking back forward. “You don't look anything like Representative Seiran, but your hair color and eye color can be easily misconstrued, hence that cap and glasses in your jacket's inner pockets.”

“It's safer this way,” was all the young man said. Kira was surprised that Nicolai's tone was not cold as it had been, and instead, contained the barest hints of warmth, if not solidarity.

“Hey!” the boisterous shout of Yuki startled all of them out of the semi-quiet walk towards the mobile suit elevator platform.

Kira saw Yuki waving his arms in a rather exaggerated manner, as if they could not see him from where they were. Lacus was standing next to him, giggling, though as soon as her eyes focused on Athrun, he saw the cheerfulness disappear. Even though Yuki and Lacus had landed a distance away, he could only assume that both of them had seen what had going on at the transport landing pad.

A few minutes later, his assumption was proven correct as they caught up to the two and Lacus immediately placed a brief, comforting hand on Athrun's arm. He saw his friend shake his head slightly before Lacus withdrew her hand. Catching her look at him, Kira silently indicated that he would talk to Athrun later in further detail about what had happened.

“I'm surprised you didn't outright assassinate that bastard on the tarmac, Nicolai,” Yuki's rather blunt statement towards the young man startled all of them, just as Athrun pushed a button on the control panel to begin descending.

Kira's expression wasn't the only one that radiated concern as he saw both Athrun and Lacus look at the two young men with dismay. Even so, it was Nicolai's next words that definitely had all of them wondering what had happened in the future, as he said, “I'm not like you, Yuki. As much as I want to change the future, I'm not going to. I'm not going to throw away my treasured memories and experiences for something that I don't know whether or not will be better.”

The serious look that the two were giving each other was enough to unnerve him a little. However, it had not escaped his notice that Athrun had narrowed his eyes slightly at Nicolai's words. As startling as the young man's words were, it was Athrun's simple yet familiarly dangerous look that gave him the most concern. Perhaps there was more than just this unknown entity that had attacked Junius 7 in the future that spoke of a potential threat here and now – of the endless waltz of peace, revolution, war.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	6. Chapter 5: To Know the Future

**Chapter 5: To Know the Future**

_C.E. 73, Office of the Chief Representative, Orb_

 

Cagalli cracked an eye open as the chime on her desk rung. She slid her hands from her face and fully opened her eyes, having just closed them a moment ago to briefly rest. “Yes?” she said after hitting the button to answer it as she glanced down at the report on her desk that awaited her signature.

“Princess, Miss Lacus Clyne is here to see you,” her secretary stated. “She doesn't have an appointment. Shall I send her in?”

“She never needs one,” she gratefully stated. “Please send her in, and please inform Ichirou to bring some tea and snacks. Please also ensure that we are not disturbed for the rest of the day unless it is an emergency.”

“Of course, Princess,” the secretary stated.

A moment later, the door opened and Lacus entered, giving her thanks to the guard at the entrance who had opened it for her. As it closed, Cagalli was already rising from her seat and stepped out and away from her desk. She met her halfway across the room and clasped her hands within her own. “Thank you,” she said, smiling. “For disturbing my utterly monotonous day.”

“It's my pleasure,” Lacus answered, smiling as her eyes twinkled in laughter. “Though I do come with some news as well.”

Cagalli nodded, gesturing for them to go sit at the couches that were off to the side of her office. There was a purely ornamental fireplace near the couches. One of the best memories she had thus far was of Athrun attempting to light it up, and wondering with the most adorable look on his face as to why his attempts were not producing any result. It reminded her greatly of the first time she had met him, albeit with no weapons and war to separate them.

They sat opposite of each other just as Ichirou, her butler, entered with a tray of small sandwiches and sweets, along with a pot of tea and mugs. He laid out the food and drinks on the coffee table and poured both of them a cup before leaving. After the door to her office had closed, Cagalli took a sip of her tea and set it down, feeling a little more alert and relaxed, now that Lacus was present. It was not that she hated her job, but the fact that eighty-percent of it was either reading reports and processing paperwork. Fifteen percent was dedicated to talking in front of the other Representatives in various meetings to hear their proposals. The last five percent was used to travel wherever she was needed, and those times were not as often as she hoped.

Lacus was the only one able to fully interrupt her days, having the influence of not only being a respected former citizen of the PLANTs and now of Orb, but also of what she had done to stop the war between Earth and the PLANTs. However, she seldom visited, not wanting to give the perception of undue influence within Orb's government. Even though Kira was a part of the Heliopolis II Project, he had to go through the proper channels, and thus didn't even get to visit her in her office. She only saw him whenever he visited her home, which was pretty rare. Athrun's appearance was just as equally infrequent, since his bodyguarding duties towards her only extended to mostly whenever she was away from Orb. Still, Cagalli had managed to find ways to circumvent that at times, requesting Athrun to go with her to various places within Orb as much as possible.

“I contacted Captain Bartfeld and told him about our situation, though not all the details,” Lacus said, placing her tea cup down. “I hope to hear from him in a few days.”

“Well, ZAFT and the PLANTs have been quiet so far,” she said, grateful that there had been nothing barring Lacus from getting in contact through a secured line to the captain of the _Eternal_. She was sure that both Athrun and Kira had set up the proper channel and security to make sure that no one could intercept or decrypt the signals. The less people knew about the fact that people from the future – their own children no less – were here, the better.

“Kira, Nicolai, and Yuki have all been working hard on trying to crack that mobile suit's OS,” Lacus continued after taking another sip of her tea. “I even had to allow Athrun to modify Pink-chan to help them.”

“Huh,” she said, though she could not help but smile at Lacus's good-natured tone about the situation. She had heard from Kira that when Lacus had been rescued and brought on board the _Archangel_ before, her Haro, Pink-chan, had a notorious habit of unlocking the doors on the ship. Whether it was corrupted programming, or even just some leftover code that Athrun forgot to wipe before he had gifted the Haro to Lacus, it had caused the crew of the _Archangel_ a lot of headaches.

“Athrun had been examining the two mobile suits, though I hadn't seen him this morning,” her friend said.

“He's probably on his way or already at the military hospital in Mikasa Naval Base,” she said, frowning slightly as she poked her tea cup. “He's getting a genetic profile done, and so is that ZAFT pilot we captured.”

That particular aspect of what she was secretly terming the rogue mobile suits incident, was something she specifically told Kisaka to keep her appraised of. To her credit, Kisaka had also informed the Representatives of the bare basics of what had happened at the time, and had discreetly transferred both pilots to their current location. Thus far, Captain Hattersfield and the four Astray pilots had also kept their lips sealed.

“Is the ZAFT pilot...?” Lacus began as she looked up to see her tilt her head slightly in puzzlement.

“I don't think so,” she said, shaking her head. “Yuki told me that though Athrun and I had a daughter as well, she died in a training accident.”

“Oh,” Lacus said, her expression turning sympathetic. “I'm sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” she asked. “It hasn't happened yet. We can still change it--”

“Is that wise?” her friend interrupted. “Is it wise to do such a thing, knowing that the consequences resulting from that one action can paint a future for better or for worse?” Cagalli opened her mouth to protest, but Lacus was not done yet as she continued to say, “I do not know what happened, and I dare not ask, but Nicolai had the perfect opportunity to kill your fiance that day at the landing pad. I think he was even ready to, but did not, because he did not know if the future would be worse or better of it. He was cautious and aware enough to understand the grave consequences.”

Cagalli looked away in shame, briefly closing her eyes. Though she was surprised by the news about Nicolai, she understood enough of it to connect a few things together – mainly that somewhere in the future, Yuuna Roma Seiran was not a welcomed presence in the lives of her children. Not that she already knew that she was hurting Athrun by not breaking off her engagement to Yuuna, but...

She only let the engagement remain because of the enormous influence the man had over the Republic of East Asia _and_ the Atlantic Federation. She was using Yuuna as much as the man was using her, and she did not want to involve Athrun in such dirty politics – especially not after what his father had done.

“There are some decisions we have to make for the greater good, even if it brings unhappiness to ourselves,” she muttered to herself as she opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and refocused herself. She looked back to see understanding shining through Lacus's eyes.

“Has the ZAFT pilot said anything?” Lacus asked.

“Kisaka says that she hasn't even said a word since those two words she uttered, though he did put the two pilots in separate wings. I think she's also due to go to the hospital as well for her genetic profiling. We're going to make sure that this isn't some trap that ZAFT has set up in the future that happened to be sent into the past.”

“But didn't Yuki and Nicolai say that ZAFT is an ally in the future?” Lacus asked, puzzled.

“Yes, but that doesn't mean elements of the more extreme parts have been silenced and dispersed,” she pointed out.

“What will both of you do if this pilot is indeed some sort of trap that ZAFT has crafted for the future?”

She glanced down for a moment before looking back up. “Neither of us have thought that far yet. I mean, the best we can probably do is keep her as far away from Athrun as possible, and go knowing about her and the trap in the future, once we send all of them back.”

She paused and took a sip of her tea. “As for the OMNI pilot,” she said after a moment. “He still hasn't said anything either. Do you think something's odd about this, Lacus?”

It was the thoughtful look upon her friend's face that had caused her to ask the question. Lacus was silent for a long minute before saying, “I find it strange that it is taking three people, two of them Coordinators, to attempt to break into the mobile suit that this OMNI soldier was piloting.”

“Two Coordinators?” she asked. “Kira and...?”

“Yuki is not a Coordinator,” Lacus answered, smiling.

“Nicolai is a Coordinator?” she wondered to herself. She had not given much thought to the fact that the young man was hers and Athrun's son, due to the fact that she knew she was still somewhat in disbelief over it. Nevertheless, even with that knowledge, she had not given a long hard thought about just _how_ their children would turn out – Natural or Coordinator. Haumea's blessings, she wasn't even married yet, much less considering children in her future – even if the future did show up in the form of her son.

“Regardless,” her friend's continuation brought her out of her musings as she blinked. “It is odd. Perhaps this OMNI pilot is a Coordinator?”

“You mean like Kira when he was piloting _Strike_?” she asked.

“Possibly,” Lacus said, nodding. “His silence may be because of training or fear. Perhaps I might talk to him? Try to find out why he agreed to go forward with the plan to move a piece of Junius 7 into Earth? Or if he was coerced?”

“Hmm,” she said, tapping her chin with a finger as she glanced down at the table, thinking about it. “It might just work,” she said after a few moments, looking back up. “Though I can tell you that Kisaka will probably not like it, and neither the Council appreciate your intervention into the situation. So, I'll go with you, just to make sure that no one accuses you of anything untoward.”

* * *

_Naamaka Military Hospital, Mikasa Naval Base, Orb_

 

Athrun sat on the rather stiff hospital bed with his jacket draped on the corner of the bed with his shirt sleeves rolled up. Though it was a bit chilly in the private ward where the doctor that Cagalli trusted to carry out the task of genetic profiling was, he ignored it. His small conversation with the doctor, before he had left to go prepare the necessary equipment, told him that the doctor was not a regular at the base, and had been discreetly called in by Kisaka. But there was no mistaking it – the doctor was a Coordinator.

“All right, Mr. Dino,” the doctor said as the privacy curtains that surrounded the bed rustled slightly to the side and she stepped in, wheeling a rather large cart of familiar-looking things. The last time he had done such profiling was just before his father had announced his engagement to Lacus. However, those files were still contained within the databases on some PLANT, and he hoped that this doctor would never attempt to sync his profile here under 'Alex Dino' with the PLANT one. Otherwise, his days of anonymity were over.

“These may look all scary and overwhelming, but I'm just going to take small samples from various places, such as your hair, skin, and saliva, to ensure that everything is covered in the profile. We'll do the blood draw last, so if you're squeamish about needles, don't faint just yet. I don't want to have to go get the smelling salts from basement. That place is rank as hell,” the doctor continued, parking the cart next to the bed.

He couldn't help but grin at the doctor's remark about needles and her attempt to get him to relax. He watched as the doctor started to connect the machine together before plugging it into a socket and activated it. It beeped a few times but she didn't touch anything on it and just watched it until a knock on the empty ward's door startled both of them.

“Oh, that must be the other person Colonel Kisaka requested a profile done for,” the doctor said, looking up at him. “Please excuse me, but I'll let this run and get calibrated while I settle the other patient.”

He nodded, though he was curious as he saw the doctor leave and draw the curtains close. He heard the doctor's footsteps approach the door and open it. Kisaka's familiar rumble was heard, and there was a faint rustling of cloth, but it was the faint “huh” from the doctor that gave away as to who the other patient was. It was the ZAFT pilot.

He heard the three pairs of feet walking past his cordoned off area, but he remained where he was. There was no need for him to show his face, considering that he was slightly unnerved by the fact that the pilot looked so much like him. A few minutes later, he heard another cart roll in, and could only assume that the doctor had went to go fetch another machine. His machine had also finished calibrating, giving a simple chirp, but he didn't call out to the doctor, hearing the faint noise of her setting up the ZAFT pilot's machine.

Footsteps approached after another few minutes, and then the doctor returned, though he noticed that she now had a perplexed look about her. “I can only assume that Colonel Kisaka wants this done to ensure that neither of you are of relation, am I correct, Mr. Dino?” the doctor asked, putting on sterile gloves and taking a tongue depressor and long cotton swab out from the various jars that were on a lower level of the cart.

“Yes,” he confirmed before holding his mouth open to allow her to take the saliva sample.

She deposited both objects into a specific area within the machine before shucking off the gloves, throwing those in the nearest biohazard pail. Pressing a button on the machine, he heard it whirl up, as it churned through the deposited data. “It'll take time for the initial profile to be written, so I'll be alternating between both of you for each test.”

He nodded in acknowledgment and watched her leave before sighing, hoping that he would not be kept here all day. He wanted to get back to Morgenroete to not only examine the ZAFT and OMNI mobile suits, but also try to figure out what had brought these travelers here.

~~~

Cagalli half-wished that the chairs in this visitor's facility had not been wielded to the floor and set a certain distance apart from the table – also wielded to the floor. Because of her short stature, she had to sit near the lip of the base of the chair to even get comfortable enough to place her arms on the table and fold her hands together. She glanced over to Lacus to see her sitting serenely in the chair next to her, as if she was not bothered by the spacing between the table and chairs – fit for the average-sized person.

She looked up and over towards the door as she saw the guards next to the entrance become alert when the clank of it opening was heard. A moment later, there was a beep and it was pushed open. Two more military policemen entered, with one of them escorting the shackled prisoner in. Though the pilot was no longer wearing the variant of the OMNI flight suit and was dressed in the bright orange scrubs of prisoner wear, there was still an arrogant and defiant look upon his face.

The MP led the pilot to the table, sat him down, and locked the shackles to the center ring on the table. After the guard had taken his post next to the other three near the entrance, Cagalli began by bluntly asking, “Are you a Coordinator?”

In response, the pilot barked in laughter before saying, “Like the pink-haired freak of nature sitting next to you? Don't be absurd. If you think bringing the architect of Humanity's doom will intimidate me into giving you any answers, you'd better rethink your strategy.”

She glanced over at Lacus, but far from showing any sort of reaction towards the slur that had been hurled at her, Lacus still kept her expression neutral. Still, the words that the prisoner had used to describe Lacus or at least the future-Lacus was interesting: architect of Humanity's doom? While it was clearly propaganda talk that sounded like what extremists would say, this was the first specific one she had heard targeted at Lacus. Most of the extremist speeches and talks that she had been briefed upon by the Orb Intelligence Committee pointed more towards the Coordinators in general, since it had been a multi-person effort to get all the PLANTs and ZAFT to the table and sign a truce with Earth and OMNI.

“The treaty was signed by all parties--” Lacus began.

“Lies!” the pilot bellowed, viciously tugging on his restraints as he tried to bring his hands up to block his ears.

Cagalli immediately held up her hand to stop the guards where they were, as they had reacted to the immediate threat as the pilot settled for glaring quite fiercely in anger at Lacus instead. “I would advise you not to do that again,” she stated.

“I will not listen to the lies that this angel of death preaches,” the pilot growled in response. “If you insist on continuing to keep her here, then I will have to stop this myself.”

“Wha--” she began, but didn't get to even finish her question as the lights suddenly winked out and the red emergency lights came on, dimly illuminated the area.

“Halon suppressant system activating. All personnel evacuate,” the calm tone of the automatic emergency system blared over the crackling speakers. “Halon suppressant system activating. All personnel evacuate.”

~~~

Two unusual sounding grunts, along with the strangest pinging sound that echoed throughout the hangar bay alerted Kira to the fact that something was wrong. He immediately dropped the data pad that he had been staring at, and climbed out of the OMNI mobile suit's cockpit. To his surprised horror, he saw both Yuki and Nicolai lying on the floor of the platform. They had been outside of the suit and on the platforms, attempting to create another bridging bypass system to break into the OS with the computers linked to the platform.

The two were curled slightly, lying on their sides, but even more horrifying was that they were both fading in and out. Kira immediately hit the platform's emergency descent button while shouting out into the hangar, “Help! I need help! Get a doctor! Help!”

As the platform swiftly returned to the ground, he scrambled towards them, but it was Nicolai's pained words, “Don't come near us!” that gave him pause.

Just as the platform hit the floor of the bay, several technicians and medical personnel emerged from the other side, running towards them. The few engineers and mechanics who were nearer to him immediately scrambled up to the platform, though before Kira could warn them away, one of them reached out to touch Yuki. The technician immediately flew back several meters, as if he had been punched with an incredible amount of force.

Shouts of alarm rose from the others, but Kira didn't get a chance to go to the technician's side as he felt a hand clamp onto his arm. He glanced back and saw that it was Yuki, who whispered in labored breaths, “Lacus... Cagalli... they're... in trouble.”

Kira's eyes widened, though before he could scramble up and run out, he saw Nicolai pull himself up, saying, “I think... Mikasa Naval Base...I think that's... where they are...”

~~~

It was more Kisaka's half-strangled grunt of alarm than the crashing noise that came a half-second later that alerted Athrun to trouble as he immediately drew the curtains around his bed aside. Across from where he had been, both Kisaka and the doctor were lying on the floor, with various parts and pieces of the second machine and medical supplies broken and scattered around. The ZAFT pilot was on the floor near her bed, but was curled up and looked frighteningly transparent.

“Doctor! Colonel Kisaka!” he said, going over to where the other two were, his instincts telling him not to go near or even touch the ZAFT pilot. He touched the side of the doctor's neck, feeling a steady but strong pulse – it seemed that the doctor had just been knocked out cold by whatever had happened. As for Kisaka, he moved over towards him as he saw him begin to stir a little.

Before he could attend to the man though, he heard a ragged, feminine voice say, “Help... she needs... save her...”

He turned to see that the pilot had managed to pull herself up to a sitting position, though there was agony written all over her face. She was reaching out towards him, and against his better judgment, he closed the distance and clasped his hand over her own. Surprisingly, there was some solidity in her grip, even though he could still faintly see through her. “Who?” he asked.

“Mom...” she whispered. “Please...”

“Cagalli?” he whispered, more in surprise than in fear.

In that moment, he realized that he and Cagalli had erred on the wrong side of judgment, of the assumptions they had made in haste and in fear. This young woman, who held onto his hand as if he were a lifeline – she was their daughter. She was thought dead not only by Nicolai but also by Yuki, and possibly others. They had been told that she had died in a training accident. Now, she was... he couldn't quite believe it, but she was most definitely fading out of existence.

“Here,” he heard Kisaka croak and turned to see him struggling to toss the sidearm he usually carried at all times, at him. “Go,” the former captain of the _Kusanagi_ said, before closing his eyes as a painful expression engulfed his face.

Athrun reached out and snatched up the gun, tucking it into the back of his waist belt. Turning back, he squeezed her hand in reassurance before letting go and said, “Don't worry.”

Standing up, he then ran out of the room and down the hall, hearing the faint sound of sirens wailing in the air. As he took a quick glance out of the windows that lined the hall in this area of the hospital, he saw that emergency response vehicles were careening towards the prison area, which had strobe lights flashing – Cagalli was most likely there. He didn't bother wondering why she would be at the area, only that she was in trouble and he needed to get to her fast.

Slamming open the door to the stairwell, he leapt and sprinted down several flights of stairs until he reached ground level and burst outside. Running through the parking lot that connected both the prison facility and the hospital, he pushed his way through various emergency response people, including medical and firefighting ones. However, at the edge of the cordon that separated him from the facility, he was suddenly stopped by several military policemen.

“I'm sorry, but civilians aren't allowed past – the halon suppressant system has been activated and we're trying to get everyone out as fast as possible,” one of the burly-looking MPs stated, holding out an arm to prevent him from going any further.

“I'm Alex Dino,” he said. “I'm Chief Representative Attha's bodyguard, and I have it on good authority that she's in there! Let me through!”

“I can't sir,” the policeman manage to state through widened eyes, before clicking the radio to call in the fact that Cagalli was somewhere in the building. That told Athrun that they had not found her yet. His eyes were looking wildly around for somewhere where he could slip in--

“Ma'am! Stop--” he heard another policeman shout out before a sharp-sounding ping and the yell of the policeman quickly faded away.

Athrun turned to see what the hell had caused that noise, just as all of the other policemen within the vicinity immediately brought their rifles to bear. The young woman, still looking semi-transparent and ill, was running towards him with a determined look upon her face. However, just as two of the policemen opened fire, he saw her swiftly dodge the bullets, leaping and flipping over as if she was an acrobat. It almost looked like whatever was making her quite ill was not affecting her.

He took that opportunity of distraction to elbow the nearest policeman in the gut, folding him over for a moment that gave him enough time to spin and kick him in the head to knock him out. Using his momentum he snap-kicked another guard. Just as the second guard dropped unconscious like a sack of potatoes, the last of the rifle fire died, as he saw the young woman land beside him. There was an ashen look to her face, but she was hiding much of her physical pain behind her mask of determination.

“This way,” she stated, taking off towards the building as he also started running a moment later. “I can lead you to where she is, using this disembodied feeling that's running through me.”

The door that they arrived at on the far side of the building was locked. Athrun pulled out his gun, flicked the safety off and fired a couple of shots at the door handle. It swung open and together, they rushed in. Immediately, a noxious smell greeted them, forcing both of them to breathe as shallowly as possible. Considering that there were still echoes and shouts bouncing down the empty halls, he could only assume that someone had turned off, or diverted most of the fire suppressant system. However, given that this was a prison facility, all the doors were still locked.

At each point where there was a barred door, he shot the handle to pieces, occasionally glancing over towards the young woman. However, with only the dim, red emergency lights lighting the way, he couldn't tell if she was getting worse or not. Finally, they arrived at a door marked Interrogation Room #4. Without any prompting, Athrun immediately shot the door open, emptying the entire clip at the keypad and handle.

Kicking the door open, he entered to find four military policemen lying on the floor. He immediately knelt down and placed two fingers by one of the guards' necks – her pulse was thready and weak. “Here!” he heard the young woman say.

Going over to where she was, he helped her heave part of what looked like a broad piece of a table off. Immediately feeling for a pulse, he sighed with relief, but given that there was still an extremely pungent smell in the air, he needed to risk picking Cagalli up and getting her out of here.

Gently cradling her in his arms, he lifted her up, feeling her stir a little. Together, he and the young woman made their way back out of the room. Running as fast as he dared, but not fast enough to continually jar her, since he didn't know what other injuries she had sustained, they finally made it outside. He squinted against the bright sunlight as he blinked and saw medics running towards them, bringing a stretcher. He glanced down to see Cagalli stirring and blinking sluggishly – but she looked to be breathing much better.

“There's still four guards in Interrogation Room Four,” he said as he carefully handed her over to the medical personnel.

“Go! Go!” one of the policemen who had followed the medics said, gesturing to the others to surge forward.

“It's all right, we have her now,” one of the medics said as he saw them strap a breathing mask over Cagalli's nose and mouth as he saw her continue to blink and become more cognizant of her surroundings.

“Hnnn,” he heard her protest, trying to take the mask off, to which the medics grabbed at her hands and tried to prevent her from removing it.

“I'm here, Cagalli,” he said, crouching down and picking up her right hand as the medic on that side allowed him to scoot in. “It's going to be all right,” he continued, trying to reassure her.

“Hn, nooo,” he heard her try to talk, as she continued to attempt to fight the medics. “Laaa...”

He frowned, as he thought he saw her mouth 'Lacus'. Had Lacus been there as well? Other than the four guards and Cagalli, he had not seen any other person in that interrogation room, though with the dim lighting, he could have easily missed her. “Lacus?”

“Mnnn,” Cagalli answered, nodding weakly. “Taak...”

“Lacus was taken by the other pilot,” the young woman said, as Athrun glanced up to see her looking around. She definitely did not look transparent anymore, and the ashen look was completely gone. That mean that Cagalli was indeed, safe... for now.

“There!” the young woman said, causing Athrun to half-stand, torn between staying at his love's side, or going after whomever had taken Lacus. That decision was made for him when without warning, the young woman took off, startling those around her.

“Wait!” he shouted.

“Nhh go,” he heard Cagalli say, and looked down to see her eyes full of the familiar fire and steel. He didn't want to leave her, but she was making his decision final by withdrawing her hand from his as best as she could and attempting to shove him away.

He gave her a grateful, wordless nod before taking off after the young woman. She was fast, given that it was clear that she had gone through ZAFT training, but ahead, in the midst of the hospital parking lot, he could see that the OMNI soldier was half-dragging a pink-haired young woman. Gritting his teeth in anger, he continued to run as fast as he could. Yet it looked like the fleeing soldier had noticed two people pursing him and the hostage that he had taken, and immediately leapt into one of the cars.

Before the young woman could attempt to break into another car in the parking lot, he shouted, “Hey! You! Over here!”

He belatedly realized that he didn't know the young woman's name as his shouts caught her attention. He pointed to another car and headed towards it – somewhat glad that he had parked where he had parked. Leaping into it, he started the ignition just as the young woman jumped into the front passenger seat as well.

“You can call me Lenore, Dad,” she said as he pulled out of the space with a squeal of tyres and immediately sped off, chasing after the pilot who had already pulled out of the parking lot.

“Don't... call me... not yet anyways,” he said, taking a quick glance over at her, feeling a little odd, since she had to be the same age as him at the moment.

“Got any weapons?” she said, not even bothering to acknowledge his request.

“Glove compartment, next to the binoculars. 9 millimeter,” he said, as he shifted gears before yanking the wheel a quick left and right to dodge slower traffic. Up about five hundred meters away was the station wagon of a car that the prisoner had jacked, though surprisingly, it was steadily pulling away from the faster sports car that he owned. He could barely see the crown of Lacus's pink hair sticking up from the front passenger seat, but he could see that the man was holding a gun to her head while driving.

“Blow out the back two tyres,” he said, shifting to a lower gear to get more power into the engine as he yanked the wheel to the left and jumped the curb.

Landing on the other side of the busy street and accelerating for a few seconds, he then immediately snapped the wheel to the right, skirting just past an incoming truck who had been laying down its horn. Accelerating again until the RPM needle hit the red line, he shifted up a gear and tore back into the proper lane in front of the jammed up traffic at the red light. The prisoner's car was now about three hundred meters away and closing.

“Copy,” Lenore curtly answered, snapping the safety off of the gun as she sighted down through and past the barrel.

~~~

Kira pulled into the chaotic lot, and didn't even bother turning the engine off of the car he had borrowed as he pulled the e-brake up and immediately jumped out. Following him as he hurried to where he had caught a glimpse of Cagalli were both Nicolai and Yuki, with the former of the two looking quite healthy again. Yuki still looked quite pale, but not as bad as he had looked earlier.

“Cagalli!” he shouted, just as the sea of medical and military personnel parted another second, and he saw his sister lying on a stretcher that was slightly raised from the ground. There was an oxygen mask around her face, but she looked wide awake and aware of her surroundings. However, he was stopped from approaching by a military policeman.

“Let the three of them through,” a doctor spoke up from behind the policeman before Kira could protest. “Chief Representative Attha wants to see them.”

Wordlessly, the policeman stepped to the side, and Kira hurried to his sister's side. Clasping her hands, since it looked like there were some bandages wrapped around her arms and she was covered in a bright orange blanket, he couldn't help the tears of relief that sprang into his eyes.

“I'm fine,” she rasped through the oxygen mask. “Lacus... the OMNI pilot... took her.” He blinked, stunned as he nearly dropped his sister's hand. She was not finished though, as she continued to say, “Athrun's gone... after her--”

“Oy!” someone shouted behind him as he turned to see both Nicolai and Yuki barreling past personnel that had surrounded the area again. Before he could move to get up and go after them, he heard the squeal of tyres and immediately knew that they had taken the borrowed car.

“That's... what she...did as well,” he heard his sister say as he turned back to see her faintly smiling. There was no going after the two, considering that he had no idea where they were going and would have already lost them by the time he found a car to steal and drive off.

“She?” he questioned.

“That ZAFT... pilot...” she said, taking a deep breath. “Took off like... those two... to go after Lacus.”

Whatever else she was going to say to him was cut off as a loud rumble and the faintest of tremors shook the ground. “Earthquake?” he heard some of the people question. That was answered a few moments later as they saw an enormous glow rise from the horizon, at another part of the city. Something shot up into the sky, but the silhouette was familiar to him – it was a mobile suit, and it had come from Morgenroete.

“You,” he heard Kisaka shout and point to a soldier while approaching them through the parting crowd. “Get on the horn and scramble the Astrays! That's from Morgenroete!”

Kira stood up as man stopped before him, looking quite relieved for a moment. That spell was broken when the enlistee that Kisaka had pointed to, to get on the radio suddenly reported back, “The section where the Astrays were kept has collapsed, sir!”

“That's where we moved the OMNI mobile suit to,” he spoke up. “Someone must have broken into it!”

With no mobile suit fleet to go after the rogue mobile suit from the future, there was only one course of action he knew that the had to take. Scrambling fighter jets and as many skygraspers would be the next logical steps, but considering they did not know the full capabilities of this suit from the future...

“Colonel Kisaka,” he said. “I need a way to get to where the _Archangel_ is berthed, and fast.”

~~~

“Out of bullets!”

As much as Athrun wanted to swear, he didn't and settled for clenching his jaw in anger and frustration as he yet again, pulled into incoming traffic to bypass another knot of stopped traffic. In the initial onset, when he thought that Lenore would have a clear shot in destroying the two back tyres with the gun, the lights of the incoming traffic had suddenly scrambled into different signals, forcing him to brake hard and fast, sliding the car completely into the opposing traffic's lanes to avoid being t-boned by intersecting traffic.

He had then forced his car onto the sidewalk, shifting gears and mashing down the accelerator to gain what momentum and distance had been lost. He had been very lucky that pedestrians had dove out of the way and that he had not clipped or hit anyone. At the next clear intersection, he had again, taken the car back onto the proper lane. Once they got close again, Lenore had fired a couple of useless shots that hit the bumper and wheel well of the station wagon's back left tyre. That was also when he saw the next intersection of lights wildly flash again.

Again and again, they were always stymied from getting closer to the station wagon, and he was sure that somehow, that pilot or an accomplice of his was manipulating the lights. There were no street, speeding, or red-light cameras in Orb, since the country generally did not have people breaking such laws. Therefore, he was suspicious as to how the traffic lights were being manipulated, and how the station wagon was always just out of reach.

“Back seat, under the cushions,” he curtly stated, really not wanting to use that particular weapon that was hidden underneath it.

He heard her scramble to the back, catching a glimpse of her yanking up the seat cushions with precision before focusing his attention back on the road. He could not be gentle and this time, jumped the curb and up on the sidewalk on the proper lane. As he blew past other cars, he could hear the sirens wailing as he caught another glimpse of police cars in his rear view mirror.

The sounds of Lenore opening the metal casing beneath the seat cushions and her yanking out the parts that needed to be assembled together filled his ears for a moment as he turned left to get back on the road. Weaving in and out of slower traffic, he looked beyond the station wagon for a brief moment before the thump of the young woman joining him in the front again briefly drew his attention away.

He saw her ratchet the four-shot sniper rifle before reaching forward to extend the prop legs. He continued to weave the car in and out, decelerating for one quick moment to turn quite hard to the right to a clear lane on the far right. He saw her lean the rifle on the dashboard for a moment before a heavy-duty combat knife appeared in her hands. It had to have come from one of the policemen that she had knocked unconscious. She stabbed it into the center of the windshield, and forcibly kicked the glass clear of its housing.

Tossing the detached windshield from the frame of the car, she said, “Sorry about your car,” before picking up the rifle again, properly setting the barrel legs against the dash, She placed the butt of the rifle snugly against her shoulder as she knelt on one knee on the seat.

Athrun merely raised an eyebrow – not that his car was already damaged from the way he was driving – he was quite surprised that the suspension still held up as well as it did after jumping so many curbs. His tyres, though, he could feel that they were losing their grip from cornering more than what was usually put on it, even on a racetrack. If he didn't fishtail on the next hard left or right he took, then it would happen soon.

“I have a shot,” he heard her mutter, as he saw up ahead about nine hundred meters, the station wagon. “Taking it.”

The report of the rifle was loud, but her single-worded curse was louder as Athrun saw just as she did, an old clunker dive into the open lane. The rifle's bullet tore right into the clunker's front right tyre and into the engine block. The effect was explosive, though fortunately, not as disastrous as he had thought it would be, as he immediately cornered left and into the perpendicular traffic. His car's tail swung out widely, but he corrected and adjusted the drift, using it to force his way to the far right traffic before down shifting and taking a hard right into the center turn lane that covered both sides of the road in this part of the city.

Shifting up again, he floored it and for several brief seconds, almost caught up so that they were now parallel to the station wagon. However, there was also a few signs up ahead, and that was when an idea struck him. Cornering right, he adjusted for the fishtailing of his back tyres further losing their grip on the pavement before shifting down to get some more power. Zooming past the station wagon, he caught a glimpse of the OMNI pilot and of the frightened look upon Lacus, before continuing on.

“What the hell?!” he heard Lenore shout.

“When I say 'now', fire a warning shot into the pavement next to the wagon,” he said, as he took a left and then after another block, took a left again. “We're going to force them onto the bridge that connects this island to Taulau.”

“Oh,” she said.

“Get ready,” he said not a moment later as caught a glimpse of the nose of the wagon peeking out, about to accelerate across from where they were. Just as the car cleared a quarter way through the intersection, he shouted, “Now!”

The station wagon wobbled quite a bit as the pilot panicked for a brief moment, hearing the loud report of the sniper rifle and then seeing the deliberately missed shot ping into the pavement. However, as predicted, the prisoner did turn the vehicle to the left and tried to get away again. This time, Athrun was hot on his tail, and managed to clear the first segment of cross-traffic before the traffic lights turned into a multitude of signals.

Dodging and weaving before the second cross-traffic could close the gap, he pressed down hard on the acceleration as he saw the station wagon zoom up onto the entrance to the bridge. It was trapped, and its only ally on this lightly trafficked bridge was speed. However, it was a station wagon, and despite the poor condition of his own car, Athun knew that he still had enough horsepower to easily catch up now.

“Firing in three... two... one,” he heard Lenore say as they rapidly closed the distance. The two, ear-piercing reports of the rifle, one right after the other, tore through the air. Not a split second later, both back tyres of the wagon were completely shredded and flew through the air.

Athrun neatly tapped the wheel to either side to dodge the debris as the back of the wagon dropped to the ground, scraping along the pavement. The station wagon began the slow down and just as it ground to a halt, he also stopped his car. Leaping out, both he and Lenore ran towards it, as Athrun drew his trusty knife out from his boot.

Before they could reach the car though, the driver's side was forcibly kicked open and the OMNI pilot rolled out and up, pointing two guns at them. He halted, hands splayed to the side, as did Lenore. Behind them, he could hear another car screech to a halt as doors were opened and slammed shut. Footsteps ran towards them, only to skid to a halt.

“What the hell--” he heard the voice of Yuki begin to exclaim, only to be cut off by the roar of engines and a massive shadow appearing above them.

Athrun's eyes widened in utter surprise as he saw the OMNI pilot's mobile suit hover momentarily above them before slamming down onto the bridge a hundred meters behind the pilot and the station wagon. The force of the impact was great enough to cause him to lose his balance for a moment as he saw the pilot raise his right arm to the sky – only to see that the mobile suit was doing the same. As the pilot's arm lowered again and pointed the gun at him again, there was the audible and visible transformation of the mobile suit's right hand turning into a rather large beam canon.

“Don't even try,” the pilot shouted above the din. “I control this suit with my mind. One false move, and you will all be obliterated with just a thought--”

The pilot didn't even get to finish his words as the high-pitched whine and then another roar of engines drowned him out, just before a gust of wind blew past all of them... along with a familiar blur of a white-blue mobile suit. Athrun saw _Freedom_ slam into the enemy mobile suit, not only knocking it off balance, but completely dragging it off the bridge.

With the pilot momentarily startled and distracted, Athrun took advantage of that by rushing forward. Dodging the first bullet that the pilot fired, though he felt it pass perilously close to his left ear, he slid to the ground just as the pilot brought his second gun to bear. The pilot never got to fire off another shot as Lenore jumped in from on high, and spun-kick to snap the pilot's wrists. Both guns flew out of the pilot's hands, and Athrun rolled up, snatching one of them from the air.

He spun around, pointing the gun right at the pilot who was staggering slightly back, seeing that Lenore had also grabbed the other gun and done the same. Two years ago, he would have shot the enemy pilot without hesitation, but he was no longer ZAFT, no longer military, and no longer driven by hatred or the single-minded need for revenge. The pilot had hurt both Cagalli and Lacus today, and no matter how he felt about what the pilot had done, he kept his emotions in check – they needed information.

“For a pure and blue world,” the pilot stated, holding his empty hands out to the side.

Athrun didn't even get to utter a warning as the pilot's eyes suddenly bulged out before collapsing boneless to the ground. He rushed over, as did Lenore, reaching the pilot first. Shifting his gun into his right hand, he crouched and tentatively reached out to put two fingers against the pilot's neck, even though there was a clearly dead and glazed look upon his face. Closing the dead pilot's eyes, he then notice something of interest – something was blinking red on the underside of the pilot's neck.

Turning the dead body over, he frowned as he saw a blinking red light seemingly underneath the nape of the neck. In thinking back to the pilot's words before his final ones, Athrun realized the possibility of what was about to happen. He immediately scrambled up and ran to his car. Leaping into the passenger seat, he pulled the radio tin out of the bottom of the seat and opened it. He then jammed the adapter into his own radio and dialed to what he hoped was still the frequency that _Freedom_ 's personal com was at, and pressed down on the button.

“Kira!” he said into the radio, looking up and out across the bay where he could faintly see two mobile suits fighting. “Kira! If you can hear me, get away from the mobile suit! It's rigged to detonate when the pilot dies! Kira!”

His prayers were answered a few moments later as he saw the silhouette of a mobile suit flying high into the skies – it seemed that Kira had immediately thrown the enemy mobile suit up and away, rather than risk throwing it further out into the bay where it could have crossed into international waters. Two seconds after he saw the mobile suit launched sky high, it exploded in spectacular fashion.

Several seconds passed, with only the after effects of the explosion reaching them as a strong breeze before his military radio crackled again and Kira's tinny voice came through, asking, “Is everyone all right?”

Athrun looked around him, seeing both Yuki and Nicolai approaching from where they had been stopped. There was a look between shock and anger upon Nicolai's face, and it was not directed at him, but at Lenore. Where the station wagon had stopped, Lenore was helping Lacus, who looked shaken but otherwise generally unhurt, out of the vehicle.

He pressed down on the button, saying, “Yeah. We're all fine, Kira.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	7. Chapter 6: Faith and Prayer

**Chapter 6: Faith and Prayer**

_C.E. 73, Morgenroete Research and Development Facilities, Orb, Earth..._

 

“Why didn't you tell us you were alive, Cari?”

She looked up from where she was leaning against the foot of her inert mobile suit. They were the only three people in this area of the facility where both _Vanguard_ and her _Sentinel_ was kept. It was the safest place for them to be at the moment in the aftermath of the hellish attack that the Blue Cosmos pilot had launched. It was also where they had all been told to say, under a dire threat of confinement in isolation cells if they were found to have moved from this area without permission. Unfortunately, both she and her brother knew just how serious their father could be at times, and thus, neither she, nor Yuki, or Nicolai had left since they had been 'dropped off'.

“It's Lenore now,” she stated, folding her arms across her chest, staring quite coolly at her brother. “Lieutenant Lenore Yula of ZAFT.” She saw her brother thin his lips in displeasure. Deciding to throw him a bone to at least make up for the grief she had caused him, she continued to say, “I can't ever go by Caridad Attha anymore. That name died over two years ago in an assassination attempt by more extreme-minded people within ZAFT, who discovered my true identity.”

“What, that you're the daughter of the Lioness of Orb? The Coordinator daughter of a Natural?” Yuki asked, chewing on the end of a straw he had found within his pockets.

“No, that I'm the daughter of Athrun Zala,” she stated before sighing heavily. “Someone in ZAFT recognized me for who I really was, and put two and two together. They tried to kill me to make a statement to Dad. Back then, I should have listened to him and not have run off to go join ZAFT, but now, I'm glad I didn't. There's still people hunting for him, and I'm going to do whatever I can to protect him.”

“But we can't tell him this right now,” Yuki said, taking the straw in mouth out, “can we? We can't even warn him about people hunting for him?”

She saw Nicolai shake his head no. “The fact that his alias has lasted this long in our time is a good thing. Anything we try to do now to warn him can end up changing our own pasts.” He fell silent for a moment before vigorously shaking his head for a second. “I can't believe I blamed him for it... for your death.... He must have known all this time that you were still alive, Lenore.”

“I never got in contact with him after I left, Nicolai,” she answered, unfolding her arms and reached out to gently pat her brother on his arm. “Given what we're doing now, it is likely that we are changing our own pasts, or it could just be a stable time loop. Everything that has happened in their past and our future will always happen. So yes, it's quite possible he's known all along.”

“That's got to be a terrible burden on not just him, but all of them,” Yuki said, gently kicking the inert foot of her mobile suit. “Seriously... knowing and meeting us, even putting some tidbits—I swear, I won't say anything else about the future to them, Nicolai—about us. It's like _they're_ the ones trapped in a loop, unable to break it or change their fates.”

Silence fell upon the three of them as they contemplated what to do next. “At least we got to meet Mom,” Lenore softly spoke up, faintly smiling. “Even if we find a way back, I'll always be glad to have met Mom. I had almost forgotten what she was like.”

“Yeah,” Nicolai agreed. “Dad... and Aunt Lacus, and Uncle Kira...”

“I can't believe he never told us he was the pilot of _Freedom_ ,” Yuki gushed. “Seriously, you know many research papers I wrote about that legendary mobile suit, only to finally see it for real and find out who its pilot was?!”

“Somewhere in the future, I think your father is laughing his head off, Yuki,” she answered, shaking her head slightly in slight exasperation. “Especially if it turns out that we are in a stable time loop and he remembers your gawping expression.”

“Oh for the love of Haumea, they know everything about us then!” Yuki realized with horror upon his face. “I have got to apologize to my mom for taking her in _Vanguard_.”

“And this is why I keep telling you to shut up, moron,” Lenore heard her brother say, shaking his head slightly. “You're just going to make a fool of yourself and eventually motor mouth everything to them.”

“But this is a good opportunity,” she pointed out, catching both of their attention. “I mean, look, this is the time just after the war, where they haven't been saddled with the burdens they carry in our future. This is their prime, and who doesn't want to know what their parents were like before they were born? I think this is a good opportunity to get to know them better, and understand why they did what they did.”

“Oh, that everyone was already violating the treaty well before actual new mobile suits were finally permitted?” Yuki said, though it was said in half-jest.

“Or that Dad was clearly former military, most likely ZAFT, and most likely the pilot of _Justice_ during the war?” Nicolai quietly said.

“Wow... way to kill the mood,” Yuki groused.

“Yeah, so what if Dad was ZAFT, Nicolai. It doesn't change anything,” she challenged. “They're not all racists assholes in ZAFT. It's the same with OMNI or any other country's military force. Sure there are statistically more extremists in a military force, but there are also extremists who are not a part of the military.”

“ZAFT and Patrick Zala are the reasons why we had to live the way we lived, Lenore!” Nicolai said, his voice cracking slightly with despair. “Mom and Dad, they could never marry, we could never be a regular family! We always had to make sure that we are careful – never step out of line, never take risks—do you even understand how painful it is to watch them right now?! To see Seiran tearing them apart, knowing that you can't even do a thing to stop it because it could potentially cease your own existence?”

“Nicolai...” she began, at a complete loss of words. She always thought of her older brother as the stronger of the two, the one who was as calm and collected like their father. The one who always had a rational thought or insight into things and did not jump to conclusions without knowing most of the facts. But to see him like this...

“We briefly saw Representative Seiran a few days ago,” Yuki quietly spoke up as he reached out and placed a comforting hand on Nicolai's shoulder. “It was...”

“No,” she said, shaking her head as she pushed off from where she was leaning against. “You don't have to say it. I can imagine it, especially after what that man tried to do three years ago to Nicolai.” She silently embraced her brother and rubbed his back with her hands. “It's all right, Nicolai,” she said, as she heard him take a shuddering breath. “It'll be okay. I'm sorry for not telling you that I was still alive. I'm sorry for leaving you and Dad alone.”

“Aww, group hug--” Yuki said after a moment as Lenore saw him amble in. Fortunately, before he was about to bear hug both of them, there was the distinct creak of the door on the far side of the hangar being opened. Lenore stepped back from her brother as the three of them turned to see who had entered.

It looked like their guard was back as they saw Athrun approach and say, “Cagalli has called for a meeting. Let's go.”

* * *

_PLANT Colony: Martius 3..._

 

Even though the treaty had stipulated that the PLANTs, especially ZAFT, were not allowed to develop new mobile suits other than repair the the ones they already had, the construction yards were still unusually noisy. As Yzak floating along the main walkway that carried him high above this particular yard, he saw the familiar frames of Zakus, a few DINNs, and GINNs being worked upon. Yet, some of the plating on the suits didn't look quite like what he remembered them looking like.

“Modifications my ass,” he muttered to himself as he saluted several higher ranked officers who were coming in the opposite direction. They barely acknowledged him, though at least one of the officers looked at him with pure disgust on her face.

Ignoring the look, he continued on until he got to the end of the walkway and swung himself to the floor. Walking towards a particular area in this high-security facility, he passed by numerous locked doors that not only had guards standing on either side of it, but also biometric sensors that would allow only the appropriately cleared personnel in. He didn't know what was behind those doors, but he could make an educated guess that it was research and development people who worked there, considering that most of the colony was dedicated to development of mobile suits and other military-based things.

There was, however, a small area within the colony, particularly in the yards section, where prisoners were also kept. The main military prison was on Marius 5, but for those mobile suit pilots they had managed to capture during the war, they had been kept here. It was because as the scientists and engineers took apart the enemy mobile suits and dissected how they were made and programmed, if they had any issues, they could easily interrogate the pilot.

Personally, Yzak thought it was a terrible idea to keep key prisoners so near the mobile suits, but hubris, ego, or both surrounded the engineers and scientists. They thought their own programming of the ZAFT mobile suits was superior to that of OMNI. He had wanted to yell and shake them to come to their senses, especially after finding out that it was a Coordinator who had initially piloted _Strike_ during the war. But no one listened to him, and so he let them be, rather than expend energy to go after something that would only be rectified once the inevitable happened.

As he wound his way through, he finally arrived at the area that the strange message that had appeared on his personal data pad shortly after he had berthed his ship and delivered the captured pilot and MS into appropriate hands. The message had come from the office of the Chairwoman of the PLANTs. Not too strange of a happenstance, but the content was. It only stated the date, time, and place in which he was supposed to be here.

“Lieutenant Commander Yzak Joule. I'm expected,” he declared to the guards.

As one, the guards stepped to the side to allow him access to the biometric hand and eye scanner, though it didn't escape his notice that they had tightened their grip on the rifles they held. He placed the palm of his left hand on the scanner before leaning in so that he was looking into the eye scanner as well. As the scanners did their work, it only took a couple of moments before both beeped clear.

The door opened and he adjusted himself slightly before walking in. As it slid close, plunging him in darkness, he walked forward towards the dim light at the end of the entrance area. As he passed through the threshold, he was surprised to see that this was a completely empty hangar bay that would have housed several mobile suits. He drew out his sidearm, suspicious as to why he had been summoned here--

“You won't need your weapon here, Lieutenant Commander Joule.”

He immediately turned around from where he had been half-floating across the main walkway to see Chairwoman Eileen Canaver, leader of the PLANTs governing Council, approaching and stopping at the entrance to the main walkway. There was a shadow of someone behind her, but that person did not move to show him or herself in the light, leading Yzak to speculate that the person was most likely a guard of sorts.

He holstered his sidearm, and floated back towards the Chairwoman, stopping before her. “Why have you summoned me here?” he bluntly asked.

He didn't really care if his words were rude – he had made it clear the first time he had met the Chairwoman after his mother had been incarcerated, that he didn't appreciate the intervention that she had done to save his career in ZAFT. He thought it was a coward's way out. However, for his mother's sake, he remained in the service, hoping that one day, he would amass enough political influence to reduce her sentence.

“I have a proposal for you,” Canaver stated. “One that may be of interest to both you and your mother, along with the interest of the PLANTs in general.”

“Go on,” he cautiously stated.

“As you have already encountered via the limited communication that you are allowed with your mother, she has been surreptitiously contacted by elements within the PLANTs. Elements of how should I put it... have less than the good of the PLANTs' interests at heart. Those who seek to revive and finish what Patrick Zala and his cohorts started,” Canaver said.

“You think these more extreme elements seek to rebuild Genesis?” he asked.

“No,” Canaver said, shaking her head slightly. “They're not that stupid. Zala was only able to do that with little to no resistance because of his force of personality and your mother's rally. Their voice was broken once Zala died and Genesis was destroyed. But we didn't move fast enough to capture all of them. There are still those out there who seek to destroy Earth, and who believe that we can exist without Naturals or Earth.”

She paused for a moment before saying, “The first and last time I talked to your mother was just before I took the Oath of Office as Chairwoman. She was the one who told me that she had been contacted by these elements, and that though she had rebuffed them, she doubted that they would just go quietly away.”

“If my mother wants nothing to do with these extremists, then I stand with her,” he declared. “I don't care if you try to bribe me with a reduction of sentence on her. I'll have nothing to do with it. It's clear, with that OMNI pilot and mobile suit that my crew brought in, that Earth has already violated the treaty. Once these elements get wind of it, no one will be able to stop their rise again.”

“Only if you let them, Lieutenant Commander,” she stated.

“What?” he asked, frowning.

“I know that these extremists can never be silenced, but they can be controlled,” she answered. “News has not gotten out yet about the OMNI mobile suit, but I can reassure you that my advisers and the Council are waiting for me to make a public comment on it. Given your record, you are the best candidate to infiltrate these extremists once a public announcement is made.”

“You want me to spy on them for you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly. “Is that it?”

“That is precisely it,” she said, nodding.

“How do you know that you can trust me?” he immediately asked. “If I actually agree to this,” he belatedly added.

“Simple,” Canaver said, reaching into her jacket's pocket and withdrawing a small object that she held out in the palm of her right hand. “I can't,” she stated. “All I can trust is that you will do what is best for the PLANTs and for the peace and independence that we now have.”

“What's that?” he asked, approaching to see that the object was a small pin that was shaped in a single lifted-wing fashion.

“This pin signifies that you are answerable only to the Chairperson. Whether that is me or any of my successors, that is a permanent position given to ZAFT Special Forces personnel,” she explained. “FAITH is what my predecessors said it was. Faith that whomever wears the pin will ensure that the will of the PLANTs is always carried out, even if it means assassinating those in the highest of office within the PLANTs.”

“ZAFT Special Forces...” he murmured, staring at the pin before a sudden realization caused him to look up at Canaver. “Athrun Zala was ZAFT Special Forces—did he assassinate his own father?!”

Canaver remained silent, her expression not even giving him any answer. Yzak pushed the thought of what his former and now dead teammate had possibly done. He remembered the disgust he had felt during the Panama attack, the utter insanity that had engulfed all of ZAFT after he had returned to space, and of the panic and helplessness he had felt when OMNI had launched nuclear missiles at the PLANTs. Not one of those times did he even think about his mother, his own self, or anything else except for just how he could stop all of it. He realized that he didn't want any of those things to happen again and reached out to take the pin.

“You will never be able to wear the pin on your uniform, Lieutenant Commander,” Canaver said as Yzak wrapped his hand around the tiny object. “You can never show to the public that you are a member of the Special Forces. Anonymity will be your only shield. Do you understand that?”

He switched the pin to his left hand and immediately stood up straight, giving her a crisp salute. “I understand and thank you for this opportunity, ma'am. I will not let the will of the people down.”

~~~

“Bright kid,” Eileen Canaver heard the man who stood in the shadows rumble as soon as Yzak Joule had left. She silently nodded in agreement as Andrew Bartfeld stepped out of the shadows and continued to say, “Though I have to ask the same thing he asked. How can you be sure that he won't betray you?”

“I fully expect him to, if this becomes a drawn out shadow war,” she answered. “But I believe that he will at least keep true to what the pin signifies.”

“Did Commander Zala really assassinate his father then?” he asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps you should ask him yourself once he gets here?”

“I think I'll let sleeping dogs lie,” he answered in a good-natured tone. “Guess that means I should send what we have about that new mobile suit and the OMNI pilot to Miss Clyne now?”

“Please do,” she said, nodding. “Out of the three of them... Dearka Elsmann, Yzak Joule, and Athrun Zala... I think if Zala accepts the reinstatement into the Special Forces, his will be the hardest duties to carry out. I hate putting that burden on him, but I have no other choice.”

“But he is the most logical choice, ma'am,” Bartfeld stated. “Elsmann and Joule are still alive, even if they both have separately accepted the pin and its responsibilities. That Zala boy is dead in the eyes of everyone else. He is the only one who can move in and among the shadows.”

* * *

_Office of the Chief Representative, Orb, Earth..._

 

When Cagalli suddenly coughed, breaking the silence, Athrun was not the only one to take a half-step of concern towards her before she hastily said, “I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. I just had a frog stuck in my throat. I'm fine. Really.”

Several pairs of reluctant eyes, his included, looked at her as she huffed in annoyance before they accept that she was indeed, quite well and no longer suffering from what the halon suppressant had done to her and others. Athrun leaned back against the wall that the fake fireplace was place at, as yet another round of uncomfortable silence fell upon all of them.

Sitting on the couch closest to Cagalli's desk was Lacus, with Kira sitting right beside her. Opposite of them, across from the coffee table was Yuki, who had decided to claim the entire couch to himself by stretching across it. That was not earning him any favors or appreciation for his apparent deliberate selfishness by Nicolai, who was sitting on one of the two turned armchair that was near the fake fireplace. As for Lenore, she was standing like him, except leaning against the wall behind the couch that Yuki was stretched across. She was also the closest to the main entrance to the office, and he had noticed that she occasionally looked at the entrance with critical eyes – as if she was going to pounce and knock out anyone who tried to enter through the locked door.

While Lacus and Kira had been the only one who had visibly walked through the formerly unlocked entrance, given the circumstances, Athrun had led the others through the secret tunnels to the office for the meeting. Officially, only Lacus and Kira were supposed to be in the office, but unofficially, it was a meeting for all of them.

“This is the world's most awkward family reunion,” Yuki said, suddenly swinging himself up to sit upright on the couch. “And Cari--”

“It's Lenore,” the young woman interrupted, looking annoyed.

“Sorry. Lenore,” Yuki continued. “Please stop looking at the door. You're making me twitchy.”

“It's not fitted with steel plating or kevlar mesh,” she protested. “It's just a thick wooden door! Anything with enough firepower can punch through that!”

“Spoilers...” he heard Nicolai mutter, seeing the young man place his face into his hands for a moment in exasperation.

Deciding to cut into the chatter before anything else could be said, and to get to one of the many matters they all needed to discuss, he pointedly said in a louder tone, “Lacus, if _Freedom_ was rebuilt, has _Justice_ also been rebuilt?”

At once the three immediately fell silent as they all focused their attention on Lacus, who was wearing a calm expression upon her face. Nothing from the ordeal that she had suffered earlier was showing through that mask of impassivity, but Athrun knew her well enough that no matter what, she was not going to show anything other than strength – even in front of 'family'. That was what he had long admired her for – her resolve and strength in the face of such adversity.

“Yes,” she answered, looking straight at him, those blue eyes of her seemingly asking an even more piercing question than her affirmation. “Though it was not yet finished when I sent the _Eternal_ to the PLANTs. Do not worry, Captain Bartfeld knows how to conceal it and the nuclear core it carries.”

“Why were _Freedom_ and _Justice_ rebuilt?” Cagalli asked before Athrun could.

“Contingency,” Kira spoke up, surprising him. “They were rebuilt because even after the _Eternal_ 's crew tried to make sure all data about the OS and the N-Jammer Cancellers were eradicated from both the PLANTs and Earth servers, one might have been missed. In the wrong hands, that data could possibly reignite the war. So _Freedom_ and _Justice_ were rebuilt specifically to make sure not one country or colony has that power. Those two mobile suits belong to the Three Ship Alliance, not Orb, Cagalli.”

“I hope you can convince the other Representatives then, Kira, Lacus,” Cagalli stated, looking quite unhappy. “Because right now--” she pointed towards the locked door “--right outside there, are a ton of news services, not only from Orb, but from around the world, and even the PLANTs! They're asking me why we have rebuilt _Freedom_ , and pundits out there are speculating if this is considered a violation of the treaty. Frankly, I don't have an answer for them!”

“You could just tell them that ZAFT violated the treaty with the fact that we have _Sentinel_ here. ZAFT has OMNI's _Silverbird_ , so they'll put that out as well,” Nicolai quietly spoke up. “That way, its all out in the open – everyone is violating the treaty. No one needs to go beating around the bush or pretend that their 'upgrades' are just upgrades and not new mobile suits. Because honestly, the treaty is ridiculous--”

_Slap!_

It happened so fast that Athrun had only taken two steps towards the chair before Cagalli had stood up, closed the distance to Nicolai, and slapped hard him across the cheek. “I don't care who the hell you are,” Cagalli angrily said as Athrun saw her stare down at Nicolai. He couldn't see the young man's expression, but he could bet that it mirrored everyone else's, his included – surprise.

“But don't you dare,” she continued. “Don't you ever dare ever say that again! Too much blood on either side was shed to even get everyone to the table, much less agree on all points! Whatever you guys think of it in the future, however ridiculous it may be, fight in a war for your life, and watch those you love die before you ever question any treaties that your forefathers set before you! Junius 7, Heliopolis, Alaska, and Orb were destroyed because selfish people didn't think of the consequences!”

He remained silent as he saw the chair rock slightly back, knowing that Cagalli must have grabbed Nicolai by the front of his shirt and finally let him go. He watched her march back to her desk and sit down, though there was still a thunderous expression on her face. He had nothing to add to that, though it made him disappointed that it had to be said. The unfortunate part was that he agreed with Nicolai – the treaty was unenforceable. Everyone was either already or going to put on elaborate airs to show everyone else that they adhered to the treaty.

“ _Freedom_ and _Justice_ were built before the treaty,” he spoke up in the uncomfortable silence. “Blue Cosmos forced our hand. You and those four military policemen in that interrogation room all heard him threaten Lacus – the most neutral party that rational Coordinators and Naturals all can agree with. That's how you justify _Freedom_ 's existence again. The press doesn't need to know about the N-Jammer Cancellers or that Captain Bartfeld's teams tried to purge all files. All they need to know is that the mobile suits are under the control of the Three Ship Alliance. We're not violating the treaty, we're enforcing it. Everyone is looking to Orb to be the leader, and if they know that the Alliance is helping them, then they won't be keen on violating it.”

“The Meteor Systems will never be rebuilt, if that is what you are worried about, Cagalli,” Lacus said as Athrun fell silent.

“We have to be the peacekeepers, Cagalli,” Kira chimed in. “It was Orb who made the Three Ship Alliance possible, and we keep two of the ships here.”

By this time, Cagalli's formerly angry expression had melted into more of a frustrated look. Athrun's concern turned into worry – she looked more worn out than she had been since she began to rule Orb. This latest attack, was just adding more burdens to her, and he was afraid that anymore would cause her to drown. However, he didn't know what else he could do to help her, other than continue to advise her as necessary and just stay by her side.

She sighed loudly before saying, “All right--”

A loud three-toned chirp suddenly interrupted whatever else she was about to say. It repeated again before Lacus quickly took the noisy object out of her pocket and set it on the table. Pressing the button, it activated to show a small image of Andrew Bartfeld.

Athrun had slid over to stand behind Kira and Lacus's couch, while Cagalli had immediately come from her desk to stand beside him. As for the three travelers, he raised a hand waved them back – he didn't want Bartfeld to even see them. “Hey to you too, Ath—uh, Alex,” Bartfeld answered, misinterpreting Athrun's hand waving.

“Captain Bartfeld,” Lacus began, “I trust that you and the crew are well?”

“Well, the crew is celebrating the fact that they're eating real food again,” the captain lightly stated. “Me, I'm just happy to restock my coffee bean supply, though I do sometimes wish that you would send more fresh Colombian beans up from Earth.”

“I will remember that for next time, Captain,” Lacus answered.

“Ooooh, ask and you shall receive,” Athrun thought he heard the eccentric captain mutter before he heard him clear his throat. “Anyways, I do have news about this OMNI pilot and the mobile suit. Yes, it is on Martius 3. It is under heavy guard. It will take some time for my crew to break in to get the mobile suit out. Fortunately, the pilot is also being kept here. We're in the midst of acquiring the right tools to break the pilot out. It will be easier to get the pilot out than the mobile suit. Orders?”

Athrun saw Kira shake his head slightly and caught a glimpse of Yuki shaking his head quite vigorously, indicating that they needed both pilot and mobile suit. “We need both pilot and mobile suit, Captain Bartfeld,” Lacus said a moment later. “Are there any specifications or schematics you can send to us to try to help you break into wherever they're holding the mobile suit?”

“Possibly,” the captain answered, briefly looking off screen before returning his attention to them. “It will take a few days for the crew to acquire it though. I don't know if we can get it to you in time before the Chairwoman makes her announcement about the capture of this new suit. Heads are going to roll after that.”

“Just do your best, Captain,” Lacus answered, glancing up at Cagalli who nodded. “We'll try to stem the tide as much as we can.”

“Roger that. Bartfeld out!”

As soon as the connection winked out, Lacus closed the object and slipped it back into her pocket, while Cagalli sighed and stepped away from the couch. Instead of returning to her desk, she began pacing back and forth, near enormous painting that depicted the signing of Orb's constitution. Athrun stayed where he was, knowing better than to interrupt Cagalli whenever she paced.

“Right now, there's still speculation about who initiated the attack, since the media is more focused on the fact that _Freedom_ is built again,” Cagalli stated out loud. “Depending on when Chairwoman Canaver announces the capture of the OMNI mobile suit, I may be able to blunt her announcement by pointing the attack to Blue Cosmos, though I really don't want to stir up that hornet's nest.”

“If I may?” Lacus asked, causing Cagalli to pause in her pacing and nod after a moment, “That may be a little difficult. Barring the fact that we do not want to expose these three--” she gestured to the three travelers “--only Athrun and I heard the pilot state the Blue Cosmos motto being uttered by the pilot. Announcing that--”

“Aw shit, yeah,” Cagalli said, smacking the palm of her right hand on her forehead. “That's just Coordinators accusing Blue Cosmos then. We're going to need solid evidence.”

“I think I know where we can get evidence,” Kira said as Athrun saw him lean slightly forward, folding his hands together. “Or at least point us in the right direction, and find the rest of these missing mobile suits that had been guarding the Junius 7 piece. Has the autopsy been finished on the pilot?”

“The report is due on my desk by tomorrow morning,” Cagalli stated, frowning slightly. “Why?”

“The chip!” Yuki crowed, just as Kira was most likely going to say the same, judging by the slight smile and chuckle that emerged from his lips. “Or whatever that pilot had stuck under his skin,” the young man continued. “Oh, that's brilliant! The pilot was the CPU, controlling the OS with whatever wireless neural link he had established with the mobile suit. No wonder we couldn't crack it – it was practically a living AI! We can track--”

“Oy, motor mouth!” Cagalli interrupted, looking a little annoyed. Yuki immediately fell silent, looking quite apologetic. “I think we all understand what's happening when we get the chip.” However, in a kinder tone, she said, “But thank you for your enthusiasm.”

“Does the fact that it was Blue Cosmos who built this neural link between pilots and mobile suit disturb any of you?” Lenore suddenly spoke up. “I mean, even I have to ask for those of us time travelers – how the hell did they get that technology?”

“Or send people and things back in time,” Nicolai quietly added in a subdued tone. “Assuming that their goal was to send that piece of Junius 7 back to change history in a massive way.”

They all fell silent again, wondering with trepidation that even after the years that hopefully saw the return of the travelers to their own time, that the problem with Blue Cosmos had not yet been resolved. As the silence stretched, Athrun could not help but add, “What's to say that they won't do it again?”

“Haumea's blessings--” he heard Nicolai exclaim, just as the three travelers looked at each other with expressions that were a cross between terrified and shocked.

“You don't think--” Yuki said.

“But astronomers can't track everything!” Lenore stated. “The Debris Belt--”

“Is the perfect place for it!” Yuki finished up. “It makes sense!”

“What's today's date, Mom—uh, I mean, Cagalli?” Nicolai asked, not even paying attention to everyone else.

“November 13th, C.E. 73,” she answered.

“Five days then,” Lenore said, nodding. “We have five days... let's see. If I remember correctly from my military history class, Panama's mass driver hasn't been fully rebuilt. Victoria Base is functional but old. It can't launch a large complement of mobile suits. Orb's mass driver is...?”

“Functional, but does not have the destruct charges laid down yet,” Cagalli stated, folding her hands over her chest. “I haven't signed the order yet. What's this about the three of you not telling us stuff about the future?”

“Um, I have a feeling that if we don't, well... none of us will be alive.” Surprisingly, it was Nicolai who said that, though he had a hesitant look on his face when he spoke those words. “Five days from now, astronomers are going to spot an object heading towards Earth. It's part of a radiant from the Leonids on the sun side, so from what we know, most people didn't notice it until it was almost too late because this radiant happens every year. That and the Debris Belt blocks a lot of it from view as well.”

“My military history course didn't say who was conducting exercises, but there were mobiles suits out, and they managed to stop it,” Lenore followed up.

“We think it could be Blue Cosmos trying again,” Yuki finished.

“But if this has already happened in your future,” Kira began, giving Athrun a quick glance, to which Athrun understood what his friend was trying to get at. “Won't Blue Cosmos know they failed?”

“Possibly,” Nicolai said, shrugging slightly. “If this happens as we remember it, and they remember it, then they'll probably try to put some 'surprise' or something on the asteroid. Something unexpected.”

“Or somethings,” Athrun said, frowning and narrowing his eyes slightly. “Like more of those neural linked mobile suits. Not that we already know that there are are possibly some on Earth or in orbit, just beyond the reach of your IFF scanner. If there are more here, they're most likely biding their time, waiting for the next opportunity.”

“We're speculating a little too far here,” Cagalli said. “We'll need to take this one day at a time, starting with calming everyone on Earth and the PLANTs about the rebuilding of _Freedom_. Then, we have a go at the neural link to see if we can find the other mobile suits. From there, we now have a rebuttal, and a way to get both the pilot and that OMNI suit out from Martius 3 without starting another war. Right now, the only strong justification that I can give to the other Representatives is to send only what Astrays we recovered from what that Blue Cosmos mobile suit did, up to space to start clearing the Heliopolis debris. But, given the circumstances...”

“Orb would be left defenseless then,” Kira finished up for her. “What if you ease the peoples' fears by sending _Freedom_ up there to help with the Heliopolis debris?”

“I can ask the _Eternal_ to leave some of her crew at Martius 3 to continue finding a way to get the pilot and the mobile suit out,” Lacus suggested. “Letting the _Eternal_ and her crew assist in clearing the area at L3 will also give us the opportunity to send scout parties out to try to find the other missing mobile suits, or spot the asteroid before it arrives too close.”

“Presuming that none of this changes _your_ past?” Kira asked, looking at the three travelers.

“Honestly, that asteroid thing was only mentioned as a blurb when we learned about history back in prep school,” Yuki said, shrugging.

“Regardless, we're still going to have to search for the other Blue Cosmos mobile suits if the IFF for those suits is established,” Athrun said before looking over towards Cagalli. This was ultimately her call, even though there were a lot of possible things that could or could not happen.

“One day at a time,” she said, nodding, indicating that she would be giving what was laid out a lot of thought. “One step at a time to keep another war from breaking out.”

* * *

_Later..._

 

It was much later in the night, well after the meeting was done and Athrun had escorted the three travelers back to their temporary quarters within Morgenroete, that he stopped his rental vehicle on the side of the road. He stepped out, closed the door, and leaned against it, looking out towards the empty bay that was lit up by only the glittering stars of the night. He had returned to Cagalli's office in a more public manner, but had found that she was deep in discussion about some matters of state with two Representatives, one of them being Yuuna Roma Seiran.

He had left, not wanting to linger, especially since Cagalli's fiance was present, but he had left a sealed message with Cagalli's secretary. It was to be given to her as she was leaving for the night; which he hoped was not at three in the morning this time. His sudden indecision though, had caused him to drive out to this bluff, which was a lookout point for many tourists visiting Orb during the day. At night, the view afforded nothing but darkness and the dim lights of the city proper down below, but it also offered him a quiet place to think.

He had written the message to be vague enough that if the secretary was a nosy one, none of his words could be misconstrued. He hoped that it was also clear enough for Cagalli to understand, even though he wanted to tell her about what he was going to do face-to-face. But, with what happened earlier today, and the urgency in which they needed that OMNI mobile suit and pilot, there was no time.

It was with that thought that he returned to his car and drove off – straight back to Morgenroete. Time was wasting and the longer he lingered here, the less time he had to hopefully succeed in the execution of his personal mission – or in the worst case, reveal to all of humanity that Athrun Zala was not dead.

As soon as he got to the contractor facilities and descended into the bowels of a particular building, he headed towards the lockers. Swiping into the testing area, he opened his personal locker, stripped down until he was in his boxer shorts and tee-shirt, and shoved his civilian clothing into a duffel bag. Taking the flight suit that was hanging inside the locker, he put it on and grabbed the helmet as well. Clipping the belt, pouch, and loaded gun in the holster to his waist, he shoved his identi-card and currency card into the pouch. Closing the locker, it beeped red as he picked up his helmet and walked out.

Headed towards a particular hangar bay, he keyed in his combo number and entered into the nearly empty bay. There were only two mobile suits in the bay – _Vanguard_ and _Sentinel_. He had studied both in the days that they had them, learning much about their capabilities, but still unable to crack as to how the small inertia compensator was developed and built into the _Sentinel_. He supposed that if they were successful in returning the mobile suits and their pilots to the future, he would have plenty of time to figure it out.

Given the capabilities of the _Sentinel_ , it would be easier to take the mobile suit and hope that it had enough power and speed to make it up to space by itself. He'd rather not have Cagalli be blamed for anything, should his mission go sideways, and thus did not want her to know what exactly he was doing. He hoped that it wouldn't come down to that, but she needed plausible deniability, if the peace was to be kept between Earth and the PLANTs.

“I was wondering when you'd show up.”

Athrun stopped where he was, as he saw someone walk from the shadows being cast by the mobile suits under the dim lighting in the hangar bay. However, he did not go for his gun as the person's silhouette looked familiar, along with the person stepping out from the shadows to show herself. “Lenore,” he stated, not surprised that she was waiting for him, dressed in the variant of the red ZAFT flight suit.

“Da—Athrun,” she began, but corrected herself. “You weren't thinking about stealing _my_ mobile suit, were you?”

“Borrowing more like it,” he answered, approaching. “With your permission, of course.”

“Oh?” she said, raising an eyebrow as she climbed onto the platform with him. “And when were you going to ask me?”

“Somewhere in the future,” he cheekily answered, unable to stop himself from saying it.

“Ha!” she barked in laughter as the lift brought them to the open cockpit of the mobile suit. “Good one. And no... you can't borrow my toys. I'm piloting this suit.”

“I thought fathers were supposed to escort their daughters. Not the other way around,” he said, as he climbed in and settled into the cramped area on the right side of the seat.

“Yeah, well, consider this my chance to show you how to really fly and drive a fast machine,” she said, climbing in after him and settling into the seat before closing the cockpit. As he watched her fire up the mobile suit, he heard her say in a quieter tone, “I know what you're doing, Athrun, and why you think you need to. It's going to be very dangerous for you up there. For Mom—for Cagalli's sake, I'm not going to let you go alone.”

“I know,” he said, “and thank you.”

~~~

“Ah, pardon me, Princess.”

“Joseph,” Cagalli said, looking up in surprise to see that her faithful secretary was still here, even though it was past midnight. “What are you still doing here? I thought you had your daughter's play to go to?”

“Well, with all that was happening, I didn't want to leave you working alone until the midnight oil ran out. My fiancee did make it to the play though,” her secretary answered.

She smiled, “That's good, and thank you, Joseph, for being a dedicated and loyal worker. Now please, go home. I am no longer burning the midnight oil for at least six hours.”

“I will, Princess. Before you leave though, Alex Dino came by. He looked like he wanted to speak to you, but since you were in an important meeting with Representatives Seiran and Chao, I told him he could wait until you were done. He didn't want to wait, but he did leave this note for you,” Joseph said, pulling out a sealed envelope that had only her name addressed on the front in Athrun's handwriting.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the envelope and opening it. Pulling out the letter, she unfolded it, barely paying attention to the noise that her secretary was making in gathering his things to get ready to leave.

 

[ _Dear Cagalli: with regards to what happened today, there is something that I need to attend to, and will be gone for a few days._

_\--Alex Dino_ ]

 

She frowned as she reread the words again. The words were vague, the meaning just as elusive, but the tone – she knew that tone as well as she knew Athrun. He was doing something dangerous, something that could potentially threaten his own life--

“Princess?” Joseph's query pulled her out of her worried musings, just as both of them heard a faint boom echo across the skies. While Joseph looked up in puzzlement, he, like she, knew that it was not the sound of shelling, nor of an attack – her secretary had been among those who had evacuated Orb two years prior, but had evacuated to an underground shelter and lived through the battles that raged in the skies and surface.

She looked out of the windows that lined the hall, but knew that she was too late to witness the sonic boom that was caused by a particular mobile suit flying faster than the speed of sound. Only the glittering stars of the night remained, the only witness to the mobile suit, _Sentinel_ , carrying Athrun to the PLANTs.

_Haumea, please protect him_ , she silently prayed.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	8. Chapter 7: Shadow Legacies

**Chapter 7: Shadow Legacies**

_C.E. 73, Morgenroete Research and Development Facilities, Orb, Earth..._

 

“Augh, I can't believe he stole it!”

Kira glanced over to see Yuki about to smash his head into the data pad, though whether it was in frustration or pure annoyance, he couldn't tell at the moment. If he weren't so concerned or uneasy as to why Athrun had taken _Sentinel_ , he would have laughed at the expression upon the young man's face. As Yuki dejectedly walked to where _Vanguard_ was and finally climbed on the platform, Kira was about to hit the button to raise them up to the cockpit of the Gundam, when the door to the hangar opened and Nicolai ran in.

“Have either of you seen Lenore?” Nicolai asked, looking slightly worried. “I searched the bunks after breakfast this morning, but I haven't seen her. I was hoping to get her help in writing some of trickier aspects of the bridge macro.”

“I think,” he began, “that she may have left with Athrun. We're going to have to make do without them until they return.” _If they return_ , he silently added, hoping that whatever Athrun hoped to accomplish in taking _Sentinel_ , especially if it was to go to the PLANTs, both he and Lenore would return safely and without incident.

~~~

_Out in Space, Near PLANT Colony: Martius 3..._

 

“It looks so weird,” Athrun heard Lenore mutter over their private com channel as she flitted through the shadows. “So... empty.”

As much as he wanted to ask why the hourglass-shaped colonies in this sector of space were 'empty', he remained silent. He was curious, but he knew that knowing too much about the future, even as innocuous as this was detrimental. He found that he wanted – no, craved – for the illusion that he still had free will, had the choice of choosing what his future was to be like. It wasn't that he disliked the fact that the time travelers were here, but the fact that they were here told him that there were things that were set in stone.

“I'd never thought I'd return here,” he murmured, hoping to divert whatever else the young woman was going to say, elsewhere.

Since approaching the closest post-war space 'fortress' that ZAFT owned and operated in proximity to Earth, Lenore had induced a depowered phase-shift on the mobile suit to bring the mirage colloid the suit possessed up. Athrun did not ask her, and neither did she say anything about the sudden change, but he was greatly reminded of how Blitz operated – speed and a depowered phase-shift into the mirage colloid. Though their forward speed was constant, the trip from the listening station to Martius 3 had been considerably slowed. They stayed to the shadows, since even with such an advanced suit, the mirage colloid surrounding the suit could be detected if they allowed the sun to reflect off of them. The mirage colloid only bent space around them, not made them see-through.

There was a sudden beep in the silence as both of them saw the IFF indicate that the _Eternal_ was hovering between Aprilius 4 and Martius 3. There were no signs of the ship being detained by ZAFT. It seemed that the ship was being treated as any other trade ship within the PLANTs – resupply and refuel if needed, but no actual docking port opened for the ship if it had no goods to offload. Crews shuttled back and forth to the plants via ship or PLANT-to-PLANT shuttle, though there were no shuttles surrounding the _Eternal_ at the moment.

“Dial com frequency nine-two-four-dot-seven-two,” he said, “and see if you can slide under to gently attach _Sentinel_ on the belly of the _Eternal_. I have an idea on how we can get in using their help.”

“Roger that,” she crisply answered, fiddling with the com frequency dial on the panel in front of her until it was at the specifications that he had dictated. She then eased her mobile suit out from the shadow of Aprilius 4, running as parallel as possible to a shuttle that had just detached from the colony and was headed towards Augustus 10. As the shuttle shot past _Eternal_ , she then eased the mobile suit to the belly and moments later, latched on.

Athrun tapped the side of his helmet and opened the channel, saying, “Captain Bartfeld, this is Alex Dino. I'm currently in a mobile suit attached to your ship and am requesting berthing permission. Do you copy?”

Silence answered him before a couple of seconds later, both he and Lenore heard the crackle of something scraping over the microphone, and then Bartfeld's voice said, “I really don't want to know how you got my personal **private** com frequency, Alex. But, I copy your request, though my sensors aren't picking anything up on the _Eternal_ 's belly.”

“I'm there, I promise,” he replied. “Just so space traffic control doesn't get nervous, is there any chance that you can send a shuttle out as a feint while we enter? I'm under a mirage colloid and I'd rather not have them see you accept a mobile suit that just came out of nowhere.”

“Sure, though I have to say that your timing is also impeccable,” Bartfeld answered. “I was about to send DaCosta to Aprilius 4 to pick up some _imported_ goods. I'll have the crew keep the hatch open for thirty seconds after the shuttle flies out. Good enough?”

He glanced over at Lenore who nodded, before he said, “Copy and thanks.”

The com fell silent as Lenore then switched it off. A few minutes later, both of them saw the port launch bay of the _Eternal_ open. Even before the shuttle had fully cleared the launch rail, Lenore had already detached from the belly of the ship and carefully made her way to the open bay. As she drifted into the bay as the hatch closed, she waited until it was fully closed to drop the mirage colloid. Clearing the other airlock gates, she maneuvered the mobile suit to where the dock workers were indicating she should go. Maintenance crews and technicians were also staring in wonder as to what this new mobile suit was.

As soon as they were completely berthed, she powered down the mobile suit. Athrun sighed in relief in having made it thus far without any trouble, though he did put a hand on her right shoulder, saying, “I think it might be for the best for now to have your face plate at max opacity.”

“Ah yeah, right,” she said, nodding, though he did see her twist her helmet slightly to loosen the connection between helmet and neck clamp on her flight suit and get some fresh, cool air flowing in. She then dialed the opacity on her face plate to the darkest setting.

Athrun lifted his face plate up and took his duffel bag with him before hitting the cockpit open button. He drifted out first, pushing off from the lip of the cockpit and out into the hangar bay proper. Though the noise of the massive hangar bay was muffled, he adjusted himself so that he was looking back at the _Sentinel_ and around the area. There were two additional shuttles docked near the floor of the bay, with crew members offloading one of them with crates of goods and supplies.

“ _Justice_ is actually sitting in the starboard launch bay, if you're so inclined to see it, Alex,” he heard Bartfeld say as he turned slightly to see the man floating over to where he and Lenore were.

“Captain Bartfeld, thank you for letting us berth,” he said, as he quickly grabbed a hold of the captain and helped him reverse his momentum so that they were drifting towards the main entrance to the ship proper. “I might pay a visit to _Justice_ later.”

“No problem, and I'll let the techs know then,” the captain answered before throwing a backwards glance towards Lenore.

As the three of them grabbed the railings and swung themselves onto the main walkway, Athrun said, “She's with me.”

“Okay...” Bartfeld began, but then shrugged, quickly understanding that it was better that he not press for answers.

The three of them silently drifted through the ship, though the captain was stopped once by a crew member whom Athrun heard muttering about their guest in DaCosta's shuttle landing safely on Aprilius 4. He was curious as to their 'guest' had been, but didn't inquire – the _Eternal_ and her crew were Coordinators, formerly of ZAFT, and had fought under the auspices of the Clyne Faction. Thus, perhaps some Councilor, dignitary, or VIP had been touring the ship – it would explain why _Justice_ was hidden in the starboard launch bay.

As soon as the crew member left, they continued on as Bartfeld led them to an empty room to talk more in private. As soon as the door was closed, Athrun removed his helmet and partially unzipped the top of his flight suit to further cool down. Lenore did not remove her helmet, but merely undid the clasps near the neck and chestplate of her flight suit, though Bartfeld did give her an odd look as to why she was not showing herself. However, neither Lenore or the captain made any comment about it.

“Well, anyways, I'm surprised that Ms. Clyne sent you. You know that it's dangerous for you to be here, right?” the captain stated after a few seconds of silence.

“I'm not here under any authorization, Captain,” he stated. “I know most of the security systems they put up on Martius 3 after Kira took _Freedom_ , though I'm still going to need to see what your people got for data, schematics, and location of both the OMNI pilot and the mobile suit.”

“Oh, an unauthorized jail break then?” Bartfeld asked, a mischievous grin lighting up his face. “Right under ZAFT noses as well. That's got to sting.” Athrun remained silent at that commentary, but thankfully, the captain continued, saying, “If DaCosta's requisition fulfillment goes well, he should return with the data on the schematics and at least a way to break the pilot out. As for the mobile suit, well, it's as I said over the link – that is something we're still working on.”

“Then we'll need to scout out the area,” he said, nodding. “She and I will need disguises. Do you have any?”

“Wigs, yeah,” Bartfeld answered. “Uniforms for Martius 3... maybe? Given the security, it will be difficult to secure the red elite pilot uniforms, much less the white ones. The green ones that DaCosta and his team wore were the best we could get, but that will get you no where close to the mobile suit area--”

Unexpectedly, the door to the room slid open. “I believe that I may be able to help you on that, Captain Bartfeld,” Eileen Canaver, Chairwoman of the PLANT Council said as she floated in.

Even before she fully entered, Athrun had already drew his gun, flicked off the safety, and pointed it straight at her. However, he didn't fire just yet. As soon as the door slid closed, Canaver stopped where she was with a cool look in her eyes. “Commander Athrun Zala of the ZAFT Special Forces,” she stated. “You were declared KIA when Genesis was destroyed, and yet here you are, quite alive and well.”

“Ma'am,” Bartfeld began, looking slightly nervous as Athrun noticed that Lenore was drifting ever so closer towards him. “Your shuttle--”

“Has left, yes,” she answered, nodding. “My bodyguard forced young DaCosta to pilot it out without me, but don't worry, he will not harm him. He has orders to give your man the necessary codes and schematics to take a certain problem off of my hands.”

“Wait, what?” Athrun asked, furrowing his brows slightly in puzzlement.

“You mean to say that this person codenamed 'Paladin' was your bodyguard... was you?” the captain asked, gaping slightly. “He's the contact?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “And you have twelve hours to execute your mission of freeing both the pilot and the mobile suit before I have to brief the Council, and make the public announcement about capturing something that OMNI apparently built.”

“But... why?” Athrun asked, lowering his gun slightly, but not flicking the safety on just yet.

“Something that the pilot keeps saying over and over – wanting Ms. Clyne to verify her story,” Canaver answered. “It's not something that we would normally pay attention to, and would have readily dismissed. But... considering what the Clyne Faction did during the war, I was inclined to believe her. After all, Morgenroete built five specialized mobile suits for OMNI, and then OMNI developed at least three more on their own. It's not far fetched to have thought they built more before the treaty was signed but were not able to get able pilots into them. Ms. Clyne was able to convince two ZAFT pilots to join her, along with an entire crew of OMNI ship's crew during the war. Given the disposition of Naturals, most would not invoke her name if captured. This pilot's invocation of her name is of interest... and of some concern.”

Athrun flicked the safety on and holstered his weapon. “Will you stand the mobile suit guards around the PLANTs down?”

“I can't,” Canaver answered, shaking her head slightly. “But I will do everything I can to delay their response time.”

“Captain Bartfeld?” he asked, looking over to the officer – this was, after all, his ship and his crew that Athrun was requesting to utilize.

“I'll trust you for now, Chairwoman,” Bartfeld answered, turning slightly to face the leader of the PLANTs. “But you know that Commander Zala is alive. That's dangerous.”

“Yes, but considering that Ms. Clyne has somehow recruited yet another ZAFT soldier even during peace time--”

“Chairwoman!” Lenore protested, “I--”

Athrun reached Lenore and grabbed a hold of her, silencing her protest with a quick shake of his head. He could not allow her to say anything that would compromise the fact that she was not of this time, no matter what the Chairwoman thought. He then turned back, only to see an understanding look on the Chairwoman's face as she said, “I would eventually like to know your commanding officer, pilot. For now, consider this a special dispensation to help Captain Bartfeld and Commander Zala with their task.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Lenore answered, albeit very reluctantly.

At the same time Athrun had said, “I'm no longer ZAFT, Chairwoman Canaver. My service ended when Genesis was destroyed.”

“I understand,” Canaver answered, nodding. “Though nevertheless, you can be reassured that I will keep this knowledge of you being alive a secret, as well as your assistance, pilot.” Turning her attention back to Bartfeld, she continued saying, “I will have my bodyguard deliver the necessary equipment and uniforms that you will need. For now, though, I would like to talk to Mr. Zala alone.”

A hesitant look briefly crossed Bartfeld's face before he nodded and left. Athrun gave Lenore a nod of reassurance, noticing that her body language was betraying the fact that she was not happy with the request and was very nervous. “I'll be all right,” he said. “Trust me.” He saw her stiffly nod once after a few moments, and then left as well.

As soon as the door slid close again, he turned to fully face Canaver, his expression neutral and guarded. While he was sure that she meant no harm to him, she was the Chairwoman and had a lot of powerful assets at her disposal. The fact that she was able to rally the people to stop Ezalia Joule and her cohort, and declare a complete truce between the PLANTs and Earth was nothing short of a miracle. That, and the fact that she survived the post-war general elections after what she had done, told Athrun that she was a force to be reckoned with.

He saw her reach into a pocket and pull out something small before holding it out and uncurling her hand to reveal it. The object was a small pin with a swept wing, but he recognized for what it was as she said, “Despite your earlier declaration, you are still very much a part of ZAFT, Commander. You may hold that rank in name only, but your appointment into the Special Forces by the former Chairman is a permanent position.”

She paused for a moment before saying, “Chairman Zala never got the chance to explain what exactly he appointed you to, did he?”

Athrun looked up from the pin and met her eyes, saying, “No, he didn't. He was... he was consumed by the toils of the war. My first and only assignment under his direct command was to retrieve _Freedom_ , and if necessary, destroy everything that that mobile suit had come in contact with.”

“And yet you returned empty handed,” she said. “I remember hearing about your arrest for the failure to complete your mission.” She let the pin float between them as she put her hand back down. “To be appointed to the Special Forces is to be appointed as a member of FAITH. That designation means you are answerable only to the Chairperson. However, since the Chairperson is elected to the position by the citizens of the PLANTs, you are in actuality, carrying out the will of the people. As a citizen of the PLANTs, you have the right to decide whether or not the orders from the Chairperson is unconscionable or not.”

“So you're saying that my refusal to retrieve _Freedom_ , and defy my father was what... the 'will of the people'?” he asked, slightly dismayed.

“Perhaps,” she answered in a neutral tone. “Though it was not the most elegant of ways to protest what the Chairman was doing. In a way, it served to further accelerate the war and give the Chairman justification for his building of Genesis. But in a way, it also helped galvanize the populace into taking a look at what was happening to their society in general. Thousands of voices were silenced by the Bloody Valentine, only to have thousands more rage for blood, until the Clyne Faction and the formation of the Three Ship Alliance, gave the ones protesting the war a loud and clear voice among the madness. Your joining them as a member of the Special Forces also caused many of those who served to take a hard look at what they were fighting for.”

She paused for a moment, quietly sighing before continuing, “If one of the Chairman's FAITH members did not think that the Chairman was doing the right thing, then what does it say about the Chairman? That is what some were asking. That is what being a member of the Special Forces mean, Athrun Zala. The Chairman did not understand its full meaning – to have faith, and to be the will of the people, but I do.”

“I cannot serve you, Chairwoman Canaver,” he stated, briefly looking at the pin that floated between them before returning his attention to her. “I am a civilian and Orb citizen now.”

“I'm not asking you to serve me,” she answered. “I am asking you to continue to serve the will of the people. To take this pin and watch over the people in secret. Whomever wears that pin will always ensure that the will of the PLANTs is always carried out, even if it means assassinating those in the highest of office within the PLANTs.”

“My father...” he began, curling his hands into fists as he squeezed his eyes shut while briefly hearing the echo of his father's dying words. As soon as the memories faded, he opened his eyes again and stared at the pin. He could think of many reasons to not take the pin before him, except for one single word that countered all of it: peace.

To keep the peace, one had to become a peacekeeper.

Reaching out, he plucked it out of the air and curled his fingers around it. Looking back up at the Chairwoman, he said, “No one, not even any of your successors, must find out about this unless I tell them myself. Do you swear it?”

“I swear it,” Canaver answered.

* * *

_Morgenroete Research and Development Facilities, Orb, Earth..._

 

“All right, try it now,” Yuki faintly heard Nicolai shout from within _Vanguard_. Typing in a few commands on the screen before him, he hit the execute button and watched the program begin to churn.

Glancing over towards the rapid-fire typing that had started up as soon as he had hit the button, he watched with both fascination and interest at what his not-yet father was doing. Growing up, he had opportunities to see his father program various things for the Heliopolis II Project, but that was quite boring in his opinion. Now, watching him easily write out subroutines with ease and compile it all together in such a quick fashion... it was inspiring.

He could hear him muttering a few things under his breath, eyes rapidly moving back and forth, before suddenly hitting the execute button. Yuki couldn't help but smile slightly as he saw Kira look up with a slightly owlish look, as if noticing him for the first time, even though they had been standing side by side on the platform for the past few hours. He beamed at his not-yet father before tromping over to where the data pad that both workstations were connected to lit up.

“Yes!” he crowed as he picked up the cable-connected data pad, seeing streams of numbers and numerical designations scroll through. “It's working!” Placing the data pad back down, he held up his hand towards Kira and said, “Give me five!”

Cheerfully, Kira slapped his open hand, grinning in relief as well, just as Yuki saw Nicolai poke his head out of the cockpit. “Finally,” he heard his best friend say as Nicolai fully climbed out and came over to where they were.

“That neural chip,” Kira said, gesturing to the workstation that he had been typing away at, “I can't believe that Blue Cosmos would make something like that, much less implant it into a person. The complexity of just how the interface worked alone is stunning.”

“You think that when we get back, we might actually be facing a resurgent Blue Cosmos?” Nicolai asked, looking worried.

“We're already at a disadvantage, Nicolai,” Yuki said, glancing down at the data pad as it continued to churn and spit out the data into readable format. “I mean... time travel is supposed to be an impossibility. Blue Cosmos, if it is really them, have just broken the laws of physics... and this thing is still grinding through numbers...”

“That's a lot more mobile suits than I thought got transported with us,” his friend quietly stated as the three of them continued to stare at the still scrolling data pad. However, just as Yuki's unease was turning into more than just a passing concern, the data pad finally beeped and then stopped.

“Considering that we don't know the full capabilities of the neural chip, the boost in signal through the satellite slaving system may have also picked up mobile suits belonging to ZAFT or the Junk Guild,” Kira stated, picking up the data pad and detaching it from the cables. “Let's go to Erica's office and map this out on her planning screen.”

After shutting down all systems, along with Nicolai grabbing his beanie and glasses disguise, the three of them headed out of the hangar bay. They passed the closed construction zone where the Blue Cosmos mobile suit had shot out of the Astrays' hangar bay, collapsing the area. Most of the Astrays had managed to escape with only cosmetic damage, though the two mobile suits that had been berthed on either side of the Blue Cosmos suit had suffered structural damage.

It had been a miracle that no maintenance worker, technician, or engineer in that hangar bay had been killed, though there were a few who had been injured by the falling debris. The bay was shut down and those Astrays that could be moved, were moved to another area within the facilities.

“Hey Erica,” Kira greeted as they entered the senior engineer's office after knocking and received permission to enter.

“Kira,” she answered, smiling. Yuki was struck speechless at just how youthful and stress free she looked now, compared to what he remembered her looking like the last time he had seen her. “I'd never thought you'd come visit us again after being tasked onto the Heliopolis II Project.”

By C.E. 96, Morgenroete no longer had the prestige or power it used to have, having been squeezed out of contract after contract by other companies that Orb's leader, Chief Representative Seiran, preferred. By then, Erica had become the CEO of Morgenroete. To keep her company alive and still solvent enough, she had entered into an agreement with the Junk Guild. Most of Morgenroete's remaining engineers had emigrated to the space station that the company had built to help the Junk Guild.

Very few had remained in Orb, though Yuki had heard that Athrun had been one of the few who had gone up and down from the station and back to Orb at times to help with the Astrays maintenance contract. Yuki had also heard of rumors that in order to finance the building of the station and its maintenance, Morgenroete had also started to sell some of its mobile suit designs to the highest bidders. They had not even bothered to contract out to build mobile suits, since the expense would have been too great.

_Vanguard_ had been the only mobile suit thus far that had been constructed jointly by the Junk Guild and Morgenroete, though the architect behind the design had been none other than Athrun. It was originally supposed to be leased to the Junk Guild to help them coordinate their own mobile suit fleet during salvage operations, but Yuki and Nicolai had not yet finished programming all of the necessary data, and thus wanted to work on it while it was berthed on the _Kusanagi_. Had the piece of Junius 7 not been released, then they would have taken the mobile suit out for a shakedown within the Debris Belt as soon as the memorial ceremony was over.

“Well, with Ath—Alex busy, and all that has happened, I figured you needed some help,” Kira said. “Mind if we use the planner?”

“Go right ahead,” she said, gesturing for him to step up to the blank wide screen projector that covered half of the length of the room. Yuki's lips quirked up slightly – even after twenty-three years, that old projector was still being used by the Morgenroete engineers who had remained on Earth to maintain awareness of where IFF-tagged allied mobile suits were in proximity to the space station.

As Kira booted up the clean and crisp-looking version of the projector, Erica asked, “Do you happen to know where Alex is? I noticed that the fast mobile suit is also missing.”

“No,” Kira answered, shaking his head. “But I'm sure that he'll return with it.”

The data pad was plugged in and a few moments later, thousands of dots scattered from Earth, to the PLANTs, and even clustered around the Moon and L3 filled the screen. Red, blue, and yellow overlapped each other, though there were a few lone whites that were marked as unknown and were most likely Blue Cosmos. “Well,” Yuki stated, clapping is hands together, looking a bit sheepish. “That would be my fault for not writing an algorithm to parse out ZAFT, OMNI, and Orb.”

“No worries,” Kira said, tapping a few things on the data pad. “Let's just try this...” Silence fell upon the room for a few moments as the tapping noise was the only thing breaking it.

“He's definitely showing you up,” he heard Nicolai whisper to him, nudging him slightly with a pointy elbow.

“Ha, ha,” he answered, slightly embarrassed by the fact that he had forgotten to program in such a simple thing into his bridging program. “Shut up, Nicolai.”

“That should do it,” Kira said a few moments later as massive amounts of the alliance colors disappeared, leaving only the white unknown remaining.

“That can't be all Blue Cosmos,” Nicolai said, disbelief coloring his tone.

“No,” Kira answered, shaking his head slightly. “There's a clean up crew at L3 right now. The Junk Guild usually operates here--” he pointed to an area along the Debris Belt, “--but we know that L4 is home to mercenaries and other off-the-grid people.”

“Wait,” Erica said, “turn the other colors back on for a moment, then back off.” Kira obliged, and Erica stepped up and pointed to the projection of the PLANTs, saying, “Is that where the ZAFT mobile suit is?”

“Looks like it,” Yuki answered. “But what are the white dots near the PLANTs?”

“That sector is known to be ZAFT-controlled,” Erica stated. “If I remember correctly, its also where they built their closest listening post to Earth. Those white dots could be new ZAFT mobile suits.”

“Okay, supposed that we eliminate all of the areas we just discussed,” Nicolai began, and Kira tapped a few more things on the data pad to make clusters disappear. “That's still a lot of unaccounted-for mobile suits.”

“And if you look at where they're potentially heading--” Yuki said, picking up the nearest pointy object and drew invisible lines on the projection “--it looks like more than a few clusters are headed to OMNI's Lunar Base.”

“Preemptive strike?” Nicolai asked, furrowing his brows slightly.

“Why would Blue Cosmos attack OMNI?” Erica asked, puzzled.

Silence answered her question before Kira quietly said, “I'll get this information to Cagalli. Hopefully it will be enough justification to launch _Kusanagi_ and _Archangel_. I want the two of you to get your mobile suit ready to board either ship, and transfer that interface program to your suit's OS. We will need better data in real-time to determine whether or not those unknown clusters are Blue Cosmos or not.”

“Will do,” he said at the same time Nicolai answered as well.

* * *

_~12 Hours Later, Orb Defense Committee Council Chambers, Orb, Earth..._

 

“Where did you say you came by this... information?”

“Sources through certain channels that I am not at liberty to tell, even to this committee,” Cagalli stated, her tone even and without a hint of the nervousness she internally felt, as she looked over towards the Representative who had asked that question.

“Cagalli,” Yuuna, who was sitting to her left, started, “we know that Alex Dino was a citizen of the PLANTs, and has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours now. There's speculation that he also took that captured ZAFT mobile with him if he left--”

“If you're implying that he is the source of this data,” she stated, cutting him off, “then he is not.”

She did not miss the frown that graced her fiance's face, but didn't let it affect her. She knew that Yuuna did not like Athrun at all, especially since Athrun was her age and her bodyguard as well – Coordinator not withstanding. All her fiance really knew about Athrun was his alias, and that he had served as a crew member of the _Eternal_ during the end days of the war. Somewhere during the war, Cagalli had met and befriended 'Alex Dino', and she would make sure that that falsified background that was the most public of details about Athrun's alias remained that way.

She looked around, saying, “All of you have been briefed numerous amounts of time with regards to Intelligence reports from our people in the field, yet you do not question where the data has come from. Why question it now, especially since it concerns Blue Cosmos? Do any of you _not_ remember that it was Blue Cosmos' leader, Murata Azrael himself, who led the attack on Orb two years ago?!”

There were a few nods around the table, though the same Representative who had questioned the veracity and source of the information spoke up, saying, “Why would Blue Cosmos attack OMNI, their staunchest ally? It doesn't make sense!”

“Which is why we need to launch the _Kusanagi_ and _Archangel_ , along with _Freedom_ into space,” she said. “Allow the Three Ship Alliance to investigate. Allow Orb to show the world and the PLANTs that we will not be intimidated.”

“But Lacus Clyne is not a citizen of Orb--” the same Representative stated.

“Her safety was compromised when she was within our lands though,” another Representative jumped in. “If we cannot protect a respected ally such as she, then it makes not only us look weak, but may also give other nations or even the PLANTs the opportunity to challenge the treaty we proposed and built.”

There were several heads nodding around the table in agreement to that statement. Cagalli felt a little more relieved and spoke up, saying, “Roger is right. The fact that we captured both a ZAFT mobile suit and Blue Cosmos one does not bode well for the treaty. That is why--”

The door to the meeting room opened, and an aide hurried in, saying, “I apologize for disturbing all of you, honored Representatives, but Chairwoman Canaver is about to make a special announcement that is being broadcasted not only to the PLANTs, but everywhere.”

“Turn it on,” she said, nodding as she and the other members of the committee got up and made their way around the table to stand near the television.

The aide tuned into the satellite channel, which showed an unoccupied podium for a few moments before the camera panned out to show Eileen Canaver, leader of the PLANTs walking from the side of the stage and to the podium to the roar of applause. Poised and polished, she stood at the podium as the applause swelled for a moment before dying down.

“My fellow Coordinators...” Canaver began.

~~~

_PLANT Colony: Martius 3..._

 

Athrun felt the quick tap on his shoulder, indicating that DaCosta had been successful in looping the security cameras. Slipping out of the alcove, he dashed to the other side of the hallway as Lenore took the other side. Two of Bartfeld's crewmen followed him, dressed in the same black outfit with a black balaclava, as he wore.

Though the security cameras were looped, there were still guards to disable, and he did not want any of them to identify any of the crew members in the aftermath. Peeking out of where he and the other two crew members were, he saw the nominal six guards at the end of the hall where the OMNI pilot was being kept, reconnoitered and verified earlier. Three of them were supposed to face the far end of the hall, and the other three towards the opposite, but all six of them were currently facing the television screen that was broadcasting Chairman Canaver's speech.

Slipping in and along the side of the hallway, he silently gestured to Lenore, DaCosta, and the other crew member with her to grab the three guards closest to them and put them into sleeper holds. He did not want any casualties in this jailbreak if they could help it – the guards were only doing their duties, no more no less. Receiving an acknowledgment, he gestured for the two behind him to do the same.

At his signal, the six of them rushed up and at nearly the same time, grabbed a hold of all six guards. Athrun wrapped his arm tightly around his target's neck while kicking the back of the man's knees to cause him to fall backwards to the ground. This guard was a little more muscular-looking than some of the others, hence why he did what he did. It made it easier for him to lock his arms and continue to press until the guard passed out.

Letting go and rolling back up, he saw that Lenore was already inputting in the first layer of the security system into the door to the cell, while DaCosta had begun dragging the guard he had knocked out towards an alcove. The other two crew members were also in the midst of picking themselves up as well. Though this area had been verified to be infrequently trafficked, should someone wander in and discover six unconscious bodies before they could get--

“Hey!”

Athrun's eyes widened in surprise – of all the people to suddenly appear from one of the adjoining hallways to this area, he had not expected it to be Yzak. Before his former teammate could utter another word, Athrun sprinted straight towards him. Two steps before he reached Yzak, who had immediately reacted to his movement by crouching slightly and anticipating his frontal attack by raising his fists slightly, he instead, leapt off the floor with every last ounce of strength he had.

Overcoming the gravity in this area as his momentum carried him to the right, he pushed off the lower gravity gradient of the walls and grabbed a hold of the ceiling light above him. Swinging down, he then plowed feet-first into Yzak, bowling his former teammate over. Yzak hit the ground hard, but Athrun knew that he was not knocked out yet, just stunned. Those who wore the red uniform of the elite pilots did not wear them just because of their flight marks – they wore them because they were the best of the best in every aspect of martial abilities. Yzak was the one in their class to have scored top marks in hand-to-hand combat – coincidentally, the only subject that Athrun himself had come second in marks.

He had bore no ill will against his teammate back then about the marks, but now, he knew that he needed every advantage he could get to make sure Yzak did not sound the alarm. Athrun rolled up from where he had landed and immediately tried to punch Yzak in the stomach, but had to dodge at the last second as his former teammate manage to shake some of his dizziness off enough to attempt to kick him. However, that also exposed Yzak's back for a second, and Athrun took advantage of that.

Sliding slightly on the floor with the momentum of his dodge, he managed to slide into and clamp his legs around Yzak's neck. Careful not to break his former teammate's neck, he locked him in a lighter sleeper hold, as he felt Yzak's ineffectual slapping and attempt to grab a weapon of sorts that were not attached to any part of his legs. Had he gone for a deeper hold with his arms, then there was the great possibility that Yzak could have gone for the combat knife he currently carried on his waist pouch – or the gun.

A few seconds later, Yzak finally passed out from the lack of air, and Athrun finally let him go. Scooting back slightly and getting up, he saw that DaCosta and the others had moved all the guards' bodies to an alcove, but considering that Yzak would only be unconscious for a few minutes at most, they didn't have time to waste.

“Captain Joule?” he heard the OMNI pilot, a young woman with jet black hair and brown eyes, dressed in the bright yellow scrubs of a prisoner say in surprise at the scene before her. “Geez...”

Putting aside as to how an OMNI pilot would know Yzak, even though she had stated the incorrect rank upon the white uniform that the unconscious man wore, he silently indicated five minutes to the others. That was the estimated time that he thought Yzak would be unconscious, because once his former teammate woke up, any advantage they had for escaping without incident would be completely gone. Lenore, who was escorting the pilot out of the cell, gruffly indicated to the pilot that they needed to move.

~~~

Cagalli was not the only one in the room, standing around the television to frown as Canaver suddenly paused in her speech as an aide suddenly appeared from the side of the stage and rushed up to whisper something to her. She heard the murmurs of not only the televised audience rumbling their questions at such a rude interruption, but also some of the aides that had come into the committee's chambers to watch the speech. Any semblance of a meeting the Orb Defense Committee had was already gone with the commencement of the speech.

It was Canaver's briefly visible, but startled expression that sent the uneasy feeling in her stomach rocketing sky high. Even as the Chairwoman of the PLANTs schooled her expression to a more neutral one, the phone in the meeting room suddenly rang, causing her to briefly jump. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and turned to see that Yuuna had been the one to calm and reassure her.

She didn't get a chance to say a word to him though, when the aide who had answered the phone suddenly shouted, “What?!”

Heads, including hers, turned towards the aide as she felt Yuuna drop his hand and march over to the aide, who looked as if he had seen a ghost and was staring at the phone in disbelief. “Give me that,” Yuuna stated, roughly snatching the phone away before placing the receiver against his ear. “This is Representative Seiran--”

He too fell silent, as Cagalli saw him thin his lips in anger before curtly answering, “Understood, General Wellington. Thank you. We'll have a response shortly.” Her fiance hung up the phone and took a deep breath as if to calm himself before turning towards them, saying, “OMNI's Lunar Base is...was under attack from mobile suits claiming to be allied to Blue Cosmos.”

~~~

All pretenses of stealth had been discarded as the seven of them took the most direct route to where the OMNI mobile suit was being kept. They couldn't waste time putting sleeper holds on every guard they passed, and thus, had to just barrel into those directly in their route and knock them out with swiftly applied force. Hiding the bodies was not an option either, as Athrun and DaCosta worked on disabling the multi-layered security system that led into the hangar bay, while the others kept watch.

As the hacking program that Athrun had shoved into the interface port where the hand scanner had been, churned and finally beeped, DaCosta's eye-scanner interface also beeped as well. The door to the hangar bay cracked open, but it was enough for both of them to dig their fingers into the crack and tug the door fully open. Lenore was right on their tail as she unceremoniously shoved the OMNI pilot through. She was followed by the other three crew members, then DaCosta, and then him.

As they floated through the low gravity walkway and into the massive hangar bay, he nodded towards two of the crew members to get to the bottom of the hangar bay to secure their exit. DaCosta and the other crew member headed towards another side of the bay to secure space suits and helmets for the six of them. The pilot herself drifted towards her mobile suit, having been briefed by Lenore as to what her role was.

Athrun did pause for a moment in the direction he was drifting in to take a good look at the mobile suit: it looked quite elegant in design, almost crane-like in how it stood with its swept winged attachment still strapped to its body. With Lenore's tug on the sleeve of his outfit, he returned his attention to the task on hand as the two of them made their way to the ground area where the consoles were.

Activating the consoles that held the clamps around the mobile suit, red strobe lights suddenly started flashing, as the faint _whoop whoop_ of the alarm was heard. “Took them long enough,” he heard Lenore mutter as both of them typed away to send the commands to unlock and remove the clamps.

“Here!” DaCosta called out to them, as the first two ankle berthing clamps around the mobile suit started to grind open. Athrun looked up and caught two space suits and the bulky helmets from the young man. Setting it all on the top of the consoles, he continued to send the commands to open every left side clamp, while Lenore worked on the right. They finished moments later as they heard the mechanical whir of the clamps die down, and of the mobile suit powering up.

Grabbing one of the spacesuits, he quickly dressed himself just as the shouts of ZAFT soldiers echoing high above the walkway could be heard. Clamping the helmet on and clicking it shut, he saw that Lenore was also fully suited. Together, they kicked off and floated as fast as they could towards the other four. He could not feel the thumps of the OMNI mobile suit stomping all over the hangar bay floor, but he could definitely heard the muffled noise of it, along with people opening fire at it.

As they reached the garbage chute, DaCosta was already gesturing to the others to go down the hatch first. Athrun saw his eyes widen for a moment and turned just in time to see the mobile suit phase-shift. It's colors were a silver-blue sheen with white accents – it definitely looked more like a pretty bird-like than any other mobile suit that he had seen before. But at the same time, it looked like it was powering up two small beam canons that were being aimed at the far side of the hangar bay – it was about to blast its way out of there.

Lenore jumped into the garbage chute, and Athrun urged DaCosta to go first before he took one last look around, barely hearing the silencing of the rifle fire as the ZAFT soldiers above realized what was about to happen and were getting to safety. He then jumped down the hatch himself, pulling the garbage chute door close.

There was little friction to arrest his fall as he slid down the slippery tube, but as quick as his descent was, he then hit the floor of something hard. Tumbling to the side, he blinked and squinted slightly at such a bright light before feeling a slight bump and was rolled over. “You made it, sir!” the voice of DaCosta said as he saw the young man still in his bulky space suit but sans helmet and balaclava, twist his helmet open to allow some fresh air in.

Athrun lifted his balaclava off of his own head as he saw that the others were were sitting around the cargo hold of their escape shuttle, though two of them were sitting in the cockpit. He could see just beyond the open cockpit door that they slowly drifting away from Martius 3, acting as if the tiny shuttle was a piece of garbage. He faintly smiled with relief – they had made it out with no casualties, and it looked like, also no injuries.

“So how long do we have to sit here in this tin can?” he heard Lenore ask. She kept her balaclava on, even though Athrun had not told her to.

“Three hours?” DaCosta said, looking a bit sheepish and embarrassed. The escape part of the plan had been DaCosta's idea and implementation.

Lenore's disgusted noise caused Athrun to laugh. He found it incredibly odd that his future daughter was willing to put up sitting in a mobile suit for hours upon end, yet did not like to float around for three hours in a shuttle until they drifted far enough to be 'scooped' up by the passing _Eternal_ , like a whale scooping up fish. However, his amusement in her actions was cut short when one of the crewmen suddenly said, “Uh, _Eternal_ is picking us up now.”

“What?” DaCosta said, floating to the threshold between the cockpit and the hold. “Why?”

“Captain says he'll brief us once we and the mobile suit are on board,” the same crew member stated.

“But we're not--” DaCosta began.

“Something's wrong,” Athrun said, drifting up and heading over to where DaCosta was. He stopped himself on the bulkhead, and peeked into the cockpit. The starboard launch bay of the _Eternal_ was growing ever closer towards them, which meant that _Justice_ had been moved from its hiding place.

Drifting back towards the center of the hold, he shed the bulky space suit, as the others did the same. There was another gentle bump before the shadow the _Eternal_ 's bay enveloped them. The pilot of the shuttle maneuvered down the gullet and into a small area before settling down for a moment, cockpit facing out of the launch tube. Not a few minutes later, the hulk of the OMNI mobile suit was seen, and then the ship again, swallowed yet another payload. Finally, the launch bay closed, allowing partial pressurization to proceed, along with the stomping of the mobile suit approaching the docking tram.

Both shuttle and mobile suit were brought into the secondary airlock before full pressurization could begin. As soon as the all-clear was given, that was when they were both brought into the hangar bay proper. On the floor of the bay, Athrun could only see the foot of _Justice_ , berthed on the far side of the bay, but it was the blaring of “OMNI mobile suit, please make your way to berthing port three!” over the external speakers that told him the pilot had been gaping at _Justice_.

As the pilot maneuvered the shuttle to its proper landing space, Athrun was already at the hatch. When the all-clear was given, he opened it and pushed out into the bay. As much as he wanted to drift over and see what the technicians and engineers had done to his formerly destroyed mobile suit, he didn't. Instead, he headed towards where he saw Captain Bartfeld was emerging from the ship proper. Behind him was Lenore and DaCosta, and he could see the pilot of the mobile suit emerging from the cockpit, taking a brief look of wonderment at _Justice_ , before noticing the three of them. She too, drifted towards them, though there was a slightly puzzled look on her face as she saw him.

“You look familiar,” he heard her begin just as they reached the main walkway.

Hooking themselves over, Athrun ignored her unsaid query and focused on Bartfeld, asking, “What happened?”

“OMNI's Lunar Base, along with the ZAFT's Lunar Research Facility was attacked by mobile suits claiming to be Blue Cosmos. It's gone completely silent,” the captain stated.

A brief moment of stunned silence answered the statement before DaCosta broke it, saying in a disbelieving tone, “Why the hell would Blue Cosmos attack OMNI?!”

“Don't know, don't care,” Bartfeld answered in a no nonsense tone. “We're the only ship ready to go at the moment, and Ms. Clyne has asked us to be an advanced scout to see what happened and begin rescue operations. Chairwoman Canaver's got her hands full at the moment with the news, so I highly doubt ZAFT or the PLANTs will be launching any humanitarian missions in the next few hours. Orb's already passed emergency declarations to get the _Archangel_ and _Kusanagi_ up to space as soon as they can. OMNI's doing the same with their ships and mobile suits.”

Athrun clenched his jaw in anger – those Blue Cosmos mobile suits had to have been from the future – he was sure of it. Had they attacked both ZAFT and OMNI's lunar facilities strictly because they knew that there would be a rapid response of sorts to this supposed asteroid drop that was to happen in four days? “Is _Justice_ ready to sortie?” he bluntly asked.

“What?” DaCosta said, taking off guard. “We still have to--”

“ _Justice_ is ready to sortie, Alex,” Bartfeld answered, cutting his second-in-command off with a curt wave of his hand. “But you won't have all armaments available.”

“Fine,” he curtly said, and made to leave, but was held back when Lenore suddenly tugged on the leg, preventing him from floating away.

“I'm coming with you,” she stated, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

“No you're not,” he answered, glaring at her. Before she could insist, he said in a kinder tone, “Don't. Not yet. We don't know if there will be traps set when we get there. If there are traps, I'll trigger it, and you can come haul my ass to safety, okay?”

She looked unconvinced, but she did let go of his leg and crossed her arms over her chest before saying, “Fine.”

Athrun pushed off the main walkway and headed towards where the pilot lockers were. He entered and headed towards where he had stashed his duffel bag and flight suit. Changing, he zipped up his flight suit, grabbed his helmet, and headed back out. By the time he made it back into the hangar bay, Bartfeld had disappeared back into the ship somewhere, and DaCosta was also no longer there. The technicians were already in the midst of releasing the berthing clamps and were hastily detaching the various cables that were connected to _Justice_.

As he drifted past the main walkway, he saw that Lenore was still on there, watching the technicians work, though she still had her balaclava on. The OMNI pilot was still next to her, watching in fascination and curiosity. Lenore caught him looking at them, and at that moment, Athrun knew that waving was not the appropriate gesture that he should give to her. She was a soldier, just like him, and thus, he saluted her. She returned it crisply, bringing an oddly proud smile to the edge of his lips as he turned back and slipped his helmet on.

Stopping at the open cockpit of his mobile suit, he climbed in and strapped himself to the seat. Closing the cockpit, he activated all systems and ran through a brief diagnostic before moving _Justice_ out from its berth. He was directed towards the port launch bay and patiently waited until he cleared both airlocks and was connected to the launch rails.

“Alex, you are cleared to go. Good hunting, and we'll see you in a couple of hours,” Bartfeld's image popped up on the image-com frequency after the launch bay of the _Eternal_ opened to maximum.

Taking a deep breath, he steeled his mind to his task ahead and declared, “ _Justice_ , launching!”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	9. Chapter 8: Heavy Are the Heart of Survivors

**Chapter 8: Heavy Are the Heart of Survivors**

_C.E. 73, Kaguya Mass Driver Launch Facilities, Orb, Earth..._

 

“ _Strike Rouge_... wow,” he heard Yuki gasp in surprise as the next mobile suit in the line stomped up the ramp and into the bay of the _Archangel_. “I haven't seen it since... wow...”

“Is it that legendary?” he asked as the three of them, Yuki, Nicolai, and he, watched the loading process of the mobile suits into the _Archangel_ 's hangar bay.

The _Archangel_ would be launched first, since it was a combat-ready ship and also needed only boosters to get it clear of gravity while its Lohengrins would create the necessary vacuum in the skies to further help its acceleration. The ship would take as many mobile suits it could carry, including _Freedom_ and _Vanguard_ , and head towards the moon. _Kusanagi_ needed to be outfitted for launch on the mass driver, and thus would follow a few hours later, carrying supplies and the rest of what Orb could spare for mobile suits.

“Uh,” Yuki began, as his face fell for a moment and Kira looked slightly concerned to see both Nicolai and Yuki grimacing for a moment. “Um, well,” his future-son continued, scratching the back of his head, “we've never seen it in combat before... it's... retired...”

“Okay,” he simply answered, deciding not to push them for the real reason, considering how they suddenly became silent and anxious at his question. “You do know who the pilot was, right?”

“Yeah,” Yuki beamed. “But still... it's so cool to see a version of _Strike_ in form. You know, Nicolai here did his thesis on _Strike_!”

“Oh?” he said, looking over towards the young man who suddenly put a hand on his beanie as a gust of wind blew into the bay. “What was the thesis about?” How he managed to keep his tone conversational and not teasing was beyond him.

Though he found it amusing that none of the future travelers knew who piloted what during the war, in a way, he also found it comforting. None of them wanted to be defined or associated with the war, and though most knew him as _Freedom_ 's pilot, he was glad that somewhere in the future, that knowledge had been forgotten and never passed on. Now that Lenore, Yuki, and Nicolai knew, he hoped that they would not treat him or Athrun by extension – it would be easy to link Athrun as the pilot of _Justice_ – any different, and none of them did. Yuki had profusely apologized to him about writing so many research papers about _Freedom_ , until Nicolai pointed out that it was future-Kira that Yuki should be apologizing to. That had spun their minds around for a few minutes.

“The capabilities that the mobile suit could have had, had it fallen into ZAFT hands and not remained in OMNI's,” Nicolai answered, bringing him out of his thoughts. “I theorized that the war could have ended a lot sooner than it did, and without the amount of casualties that it left in its wake.”

“I would like to read it some time, if possible, Nicolai,” he said after a moment. The look of surprise on Nicolai's face was unexpected, and curious as to the reason he asked, “What?”

“It's... it's just...” the young man began, before falling silent with a shake of his head. “Never mind. I'll be happy to show you the document after all of this.”

“I look forward to it,” he said, nodding just as _Strike Rouge_ finished berthing procedures and popped open its cockpit. He saw his sister step out with a sack slung over her shoulders and her helmet clipped to the side of her flight suit's belt.

“Hey!” Yuki cheerfully yelled across the bay, startling a few of the technicians as Kira chuckled at his antics, while Nicolai sighed in exasperation and put a hand to his forehead. Cagalli heard him and looked up, giving them a wave of her hand in acknowledgment as she headed to the lifts on their side that would take her up to them.

“Ara,” he heard Lacus say as he saw her enter the walkway the three of them were currently on, from within the ship. “It looks like we will be lifting off soon,” she said as she joined them, smiling in slight amusement at Nicolai's expression.

“Three more Astrays and we will be maximum capacity,” he informed her.

“Cagalli!” Kira caught a brief glimpse of Representative Seiran running up the side of the ramp and into the bay, right below the walkway he and the others were standing on. It seemed that Seiran did not see them, or thought those on the walkway were watching the loading of the mobile suits as he and the others heard him say, “Cagalli, why must you go? Colonel Kisaka is already leading the taskforce. There is no need for Orb's leader to get further involved in a dispute between OMNI and Blue Cosmos other than render humanitarian aid.”

“And what makes you think that Blue Cosmos won't take advantage of the fact that OMNI is weakened considerably and attack everyone else?” he heard Cagalli challenge.

“Their most logical course of action would be to attack ZAFT and the PLANTs,” Seiran stated. “Just to ensure that Orb who brokered the treaty, cannot call on OMNI or other nations for help--”

“Which is precisely why we need to stop them right now, Yuuna!”

“I just don't want to see you get hurt, Cagalli,” Seiran said, surprising Kira with his words. “Orb cannot lose another beloved leader again, not immediately after they had just lost your father.”

“I am not my father, Yuuna,” she said after a few moments of silence. “I know that they only voted me as leader because of my father and what he sacrificed. Besides, I know that my country is in good hands while I am away. Should I fall, then I know that you at least will keep Orb strong--”

Kira was startled at the sudden action that Yuki had taken – the young man had unexpectedly tackled and pinned Nicolai to the ground. The noise had silenced both Cagalli and her fiance below them. However, he was not paying attention to what was being discussed below them anymore, and was more focused in grave concern at just how furious Nicolai looked.

“Nicolai,” he saw Lacus crouch down and say in a soothing tone. “Nicolai, look at me.”

Little by little, the hostile look in the young man's eyes slowly died, though by that time, it seemed that the Representative had left and Cagalli had taken the lift up. “What's going on?” he heard his sister ask as he looked back to see her approaching with some trepidation in her eyes and footsteps.

“I don't know,” he admitted – he really had no idea why exactly Nicolai reacted the way he reacted, other than it seemed that this was the second time within the proximity of Representative Seiran that the young man had lost his cool.

“I'm calm,” Nicolai eventually said, his voice half muffled by the fact his face was pressed to the walkway's floor.

“Liar,” Yuki stated, but nonetheless, eased his hold on him and got up, dusting his hands.

Slowly, Nicolai got up, but didn't face them and instead, brushed himself off, adjusted his hat and glasses, and stiffly walked away. Kira placed a hand on Cagalli's arm to hold her back from calling out to him, even though he himself was quite curious as to the reason why this had happened. Lacus and also stood back up, but wore a worried expression on her face. However, even she didn't follow the young man.

It was only when Nicolai disappeared back into the bowels of the ship that Yuki said in a serious, quiet tone, “Three years ago in our time, Yuuna Roma Seiran tried to claim Nicolai as his son.”

“What?!” Cagalli exclaimed.

“You weren't there to stop it, Cagalli,” Yuki continued. “So Athrun did. He put his foot down on the claims and in retaliation, Seiran raked his alias through the mud. It was a very public, and extremely dirty fight. Nicolai couldn't stand what Seiran was doing, and wanted Athrun to outright say who he really was. But Athrun refused and continued to let Seiran continue to tarnish 'Alex Dino' until there was nothing left. That's why Nicolai hates him... hates him more than he hated his father for not stopping Lenore from joining ZAFT.”

“It didn't reignite the war, did it?” Cagalli asked.

“No, but relations between Orb and Coordinators in general are generally cool last I heard and paid attention to,” Yuki stated.

“What did Lenore think of it?” Kira asked, frowning slightly.

“I think she has the best understanding out of all of us as to why Athrun did what he did, given that she also lives under an alias now,” he stated, shrugging slightly. “But I shouldn't say anymore... and this is not because Nicolai will yell at me, but because it's starting to get into territory that I don't want to talk about, please.”

“All right,” Lacus said, gently taking Yuki by the arm. “Let's go in. They'll be finished soon, so we should get settled before the calm is gone.”

* * *

_OMNI Lunar Base, Moon..._

 

The destruction of both ZAFT's facilities and OMNI's Lunar Base looked worse than the breaking of Heliopolis in Athrun's opinion, as he floated in and among the smaller of the debris that had been ejected from the regolith surface. It looked almost as terrible as Junius 7, and he felt his stomach churn slightly as he saw flash-frozen bodies floating among the larger of the debris. No one who lived here, not even those near the preparatory school and neutral colony on the other side of the Moon, had survived the attack. Still, he kept broadcasting the response signal on all open channels, hoping that perhaps some survivors were stuck in the escape pods and just needed some help getting free.

As for the Blue Cosmos mobile suits, there had been no sign of them since he had arrived here. Was careful though, to not get too close to the surface just yet, mainly because there could be some trap set on the surface. He would only approach only if his sensors picked up on an SOS being broadcasted. So far... nothing.

His com suddenly crackled as he heard, “... _Justice_ , this is the _Eternal_. Do you copy? _Justice_ , this is the _Eternal_ \--”

“This is _Justice_ , I copy,” he keyed into the approaching ship's com frequency while sending the response signal into a sub-channel to continue to broadcast.

Turning his mobile suit around slightly, he saw the faint blinking lights of the _Eternal_ approaching, while the reflective surface of the moon's light bounced off and faintly illuminated the pink-colored ship. Two mobile suits were flying towards him in front of the ship – _Sentinel_ and the OMNI mobile suit. A few moments later, another com frequency was pinging him and he keyed into that one too, though he muted the line to _Eternal_ as he saw two images pop up on the corner of his screen, showing the pilots of the mobile suit.

“Hey, Mr. Dino!” the pilot of the OMNI mobile suit said, waving in greeting.

Athrun blinked, slightly disconcerted that he was being addressed so formally when he wasn't even older than the two pilots before him. “Uh... hi. You can call me Alex. 'Mr. Dino' is... it makes me feel old...”

“Ha, sorry,” the pilot answered, as he heard Lenore snort in laughter. “I'm just used to seeing you more older... but I'll try, sir. Oh, by the way, I'm Ensign Inga Aurelia of OMNI, and this is my mobile suit, _Silverbird_. Lenore, Nicolai, Yuki, and I went to school together back in the day--”

“Spoilers, Inga!” Lenore admonished in nearly the same tone that he had heard Nicolai said the same before. “Anyways, it looks like there's no trap here. Find any Blue Cosmos, Alex?”

“None so far, but there's also no signal from survivors,” he said as they got down to business. “ _Justice_ doesn't have life sign scanners. Do either of your mobile suits have them?” Both pilots shook their heads no. “All right then,” he said, swallowing the lump in his throat as he hoped that he did not look or sound apprehensive over the com.

He was not looking forward to digging through the remnants – but for the sake of possible survivors, he shoved as much of his painful memories of Junius 7 aside as possible. “We'll have to search the surface then. Be careful, and if you find anything, let the _Eternal_ know. If you encounter Blue Cosmos, no heroics. Let the rest of us know and we'll come to your aid. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” both of the answered at the same time.

* * *

_Later..._

 

The _Kusanagi_ 's launch into space had been delayed, mainly because of a terrible storm system that had rolled across Orb a few hours after the _Archangel_ had launched. Cagalli had wanted to wait for the second ship, but time was also slipping away and thus, she had ordered the _Archangel_ to go ahead, with orders for the _Kusanagi_ to catch up when they could.

The _Archangel_ had arrived at the Moon a couple of hours before the first of the OMNI and ZAFT ships had also arrived bearing help. Kira had to count their luck because tensions had ratcheted up as soon as OMNI and ZAFT had identified each other. Had the _Eternal_ and _Archangel_ not already been there, old grudges might have flared up and ignited yet another war.

“Kira,” Captain Ramius's voice came over the com. “We've been requested to stand down and allow OMNI and ZAFT to take over the search for now.”

“Copy,” he answered, as he took one last look at the remnants of the spaceport attached to the neutral colony on his screen and gently maneuvered _Freedom_ up and away.

“Also, not to kick you out of your berth, but since the _Eternal_ has more room than the _Archangel_ at the moment, would you mind berthing there for now? Just until the _Kusanagi_ gets here and we can sort out the logistics.”

“It's all right, Captain Ramius,” he answered as he flew around the ejected debris until he got clear.

As he flew along the axis of the line the straddled the dark and sun side of the moon towards the north polar axis where both the _Eternal_ and _Archangel_ were located, he noticed that the Astrays, and _Strike Rouge_ were also streaming back to the _Archangel_ , and the bulkier specialized mobile suits, the OMNI one, along with _Sentinel_ , and _Vanguard_ were headed towards the _Eternal_. Yet one suit was not with them – _Justice_.

He had pinged Athrun earlier and had briefly spoken to him as soon as they had arrived to assist the _Eternal_ , but because there was just so much to sift through, their chat had been brief. Fortunately, it was not too difficult to spot where _Justice_ was – the mobile suit had stopped just beyond the dark and sun facing side, where the sun illuminated the remnants of the equatorial colony.

He maneuvered _Freedom_ to where his friend was and stopped before him, looking at what he could only presume Athrun was looking at through his screen. It was the remnants of the preparatory school that both of them had gone to before circumstance had separated them. From this vantage point, he could only see a sheen of black, obsidian-like substance covering the surface – it looked like the place had been directly targeted by mobile suit laser fire.

Opening a private video com channel to Athrun, he saw his friend sitting in the cockpit chair with his head bowed and his hands resting on the throttles. It was only Athrun's minute shaking, in sorrow, anger – he couldn't tell – that he knew that his friend had not been hurt. He gently asked, “Athrun, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” he heard him whisper, his voice nearly cracking on the word.

“Come on,” he said, knowing that this particular tragic scene on the surface of the moon, however heartbroken he felt about it, had caused even more terrible memories to well up for Athrun. Triggering the cable-tow from his mobile suit, he locked it onto _Justice_. “I'm bringing you back to the _Eternal_ , okay?” he said, continuing to watch his friend out of the corner of his eyes as he maneuvered _Freedom_ towards the appropriate direction.

There was no answer, but Kira didn't expect any. All he knew was that he needed to get Athrun away from here, let him rest and not participate in the search and rescue operations until he was better. Muting the voice part of the line connected to Athrun, he keyed in another frequency – this one being Lacus's personal com frequency. She answered a second later, saying, “Kira?”

“Something's wrong with Athrun,” he began without preamble. “I found him staring at the glassed remnants of the preparatory school that we went to when we were younger. He's not responding much and I'm towing him back to _Eternal_. Will you clear the hangar bay and get a medical team on standby? I don't want the children to see this.”

“I will,” she answered a moment later.

Closing the frequency, he maneuvered _Freedom_ and the towed _Justice_ towards the dark side of the moon and slowed down their forward momentum until they were no longer moving. Up ahead, he could see the last of the specialized mobile suits disappear into the launch tubes. Giving Lacus a few minutes, he then eased the throttle back up and approached the ship. Maneuvering _Justice_ into the airlock first, he detached the cable and manually closed the airlock to bring the mobile suit in. A few minutes after the green light lit again, he opened the airlock and stepped _Freedom_ in as well.

As soon as he was brought in and berthed his mobile suit, he depowered it and popped open the hatch. Pushing off, he floated across the bay as he saw Lacus already floating from the main walkway and down to where _Justice_ was. The mobile suit was no longer in phase-shifted mode, but the cockpit hatch had not been opened yet. Halting himself right where the manual release was, he caught Lacus by her hands and halted her as well.

Pulling the handle, there was a hiss before the hatch popped open. Swinging himself over to the lip, he ducked in and saw Athrun still sitting there, though his hands were no longer on the throttles. His head was still bowed, but he could clearly see him shaking a little. Lacus positioned herself on the other side and gently said, “Athrun.”

She moved in a little further and Kira watched her reach out and twist Athrun's helmet enough to open it. He took the helmet from her and saw her tilt Athrun's head up. There were a few droplets of tears that floated free from the movement as Kira saw him slowly blink, though he was more concerned about the nearly blank expression that his friend wore. “Athrun, look at me,” he heard Lacus say in a soft tone. “Look at me please. Athrun...”

As she repeated her words, the blank and far away look that had encompassed his friend's eyes slowly came back and came to life as he saw Athrun's eyes shift and focus on Lacus. He heard his friend suddenly take a shuddering breath, seemingly finally releasing a part of whatever memories had gripped his mind. “The children...” he heard his friend haggardly whisper. “Glassed... just like... just...”

For a moment, he thought that Athrun was talking about the future people, but it was Lacus's words that dashed that thought as she said, “They didn't suffer as the others did. That is all we can give them in thoughts and prayer, Athrun.”

“T-thank... you,” he haltingly said, taking a deep breath, seemingly returning to the present reality. It seemed the answer was satisfactory for Lacus as he saw her push back slightly, allowing Athrun to unbuckle himself. Kira caught his eyes with his own as Athrun slowly climbed out of the chair, saying, “Thank you, Kira... for bringing me home.”

As his friend suddenly pushed off and out of the cockpit, Kira was about to go after him, when Lacus tugged on the sleeve of his flight suit to prevent him from following him. Turning back as he saw Athrun disappear into the ship, his attention was momentarily diverted with the arrival of a shuttle. As soon as it halted, he saw the hatch open and Cagalli immediately floated out. She spotted the two of them and floated towards them.

“Is he...?” Cagalli asked, worry and panic coloring her question.

“He'll be fine,” Lacus said in a kind tone as Cagalli halted before them.

“What happened?” he heard his sister demand.

He saw Lacus bite the bottom of her lip, a most unusual of gestures, looking saddened and unsure for a moment before saying, “Athrun was among the first group of people to respond to the destruction of Junius 7. Many of us were hoping that perhaps there were pockets of survivors who had either gotten to the life pods or were trapped in areas in the colony which still had air. What he saw...” She paused for a moment, falling silent. Kira placed a comforting arm around her as she took a couple of calming breaths before continuing, “What he saw were areas that looked like it had been turn into glass – super heated parts of the colony that had not been vaporized by the immediate explosion. Forensics later identified some of those areas as parks and playgrounds...”

Kira had no words to say, and neither did Cagalli as they stared at Lacus. He turned slightly to look at the unpowered _Justice_ – what Athrun had seen while flying above the preparatory school and elsewhere must have triggered those horrific memories. His own memories of floating within Junius 7 while the _Archangel_ attempted to resupply were bad enough that tried to block them out as much as possible. He was right – he couldn't imagine what Athrun was going through with this search and rescue operation being conducted on the Moon.

“Can... can I go see him?” Cagalli asked, breaking the silence.

“You can try,” Lacus answered, unsure. “He's most likely in his room.”

Kira watched his sister push off and float towards the entrance to the ship proper. As much as he wanted to say that Cagalli should leave Athrun alone for now, since it looked like his friend wanted to be alone, he didn't. Sometimes the pillar needed someone to help keep it strong, and at this moment, Kira knew that he wasn't the right person to do that. He just hoped his sister was.

~~~

The small window in his room was facing the endless sea of black that was flecked with stars if he squinted enough. It did nothing to calm the turmoil rolling through his thoughts and memories at the moment – the reveries that made him who he was today. Closing his eyes, he could still see the blackened glass, reflecting the shine of the Earth in the distance, along with the sun, and of his mobile armor that he had been piloting during the Junius 7 search and rescue.

The knock on door caused him to open his eyes as he heard Cagalli's muffled voice ask, “May I come in?”

He wanted to deny her entry, wanted to continue to be alone, lost in his thoughts of the past, but that part of him was immediately quashed by a overwhelming sense of not wanting to be alone anymore. “Come in,” he quietly answered.

The door slid open, spilling light into his dark room as he turned slightly from staring out at the small window to see Cagalli enter. She floated towards him as the door slid close, and he caught her before she could crash into the wall in the near-darkness. He didn't say a word to her except to embrace her tightly, glad that she had disturbed him and not left him alone with his thoughts.

“It's all right,” he heard her whisper. “It's going to be all right.”

They remained like that for a few minutes more until Athrun was sure that the tears that he should no longer shed for the memories resting in peace, were not going to overwhelm him. Slowly, he let her go until he was holding her at arm's length, though before he could lean in to kiss her, he saw her blink as her eyes focused on an object that had floated up between them.

The necklace that she had given to him the second time they had met had floated up from underneath the tee-shirt he wore under his flight suit. Said flight suit was only partially stripped from him – he was still wearing the lower half of it while the attached upper half and the sleeves were floating around him. His initial frustration upon entering his room at just how confining the flight suit was, had been a half-won battle; he had given up on completely stripping clear of it when he found it more comforting to stare out of the window.

“What... is that?” Cagalli asked, as her eyes focused not on the stone, but on the winged pin that was resting next to the stone. He had looped the FAITH pin around the necklace, in remembrance of what he had clandestinely discussed with Chairwoman Canaver.

Athrun reached out with his right hand and grabbed the end of the necklace. Tucking it back underneath his shirt, he briefly closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. This was the path he now chose, for the sake of his memories, and softly said, “It's a promise to never let what happened repeat itself.”

~~~

Lenore looked at the door again, even though she knew that it would do nothing to help ease her anxiety. She glanced over towards the far side of the room, as a brief rush of jealousy erupted within her – her brother was looking quite calm and busy working on the data pad that he had linked to _Vanguard_ 's systems. The mobile suit had been scouring since its launch up into space, for any sign of Blue Cosmos mobile suits, but so far, had not found anything since its initial data haul. None of them could figure out how Blue Cosmos just suddenly upped and disappeared. It was worrying.

Even more worrying for her was the fact that Lacus had all but ordered them to remain in this room, having hastily ushered everyone, including the maintenance personnel out of the hangar bay. _Justice_ and _Freedom_ hadn't even returned at that time yet, and she was nervous as to what may have happened. However, she did not hear any sort of panicked footsteps outside of the room the four of them had been ushered into thus far. She wondered when they were going to be released... or at least get some news about whatever situation had arisen.

Neither she, her brother, or Yuki had felt anything wrong with them, so their parents were okay, but why had Lacus ordered everyone out of the hangar bay?

She glanced over towards where Yuki and Inga were, huddled close together and talking to each other in low tones. While she was happy to see that her cousin and his girlfriend were reunited, she didn't want to disturb them either with her worry. It was times like these when she wished she was with her teammates again – not left alone like this to let her thoughts run wild in speculation.

The door suddenly swished open, causing all of them to look up as Lacus half-floated, half-stepped in. “The way is clear. You may return to your rooms or if you choose to, use the facilities to clean yourselves up. But please, I ask that you do not disturb Alex, Kira, or Cagalli. They all need some rest.”

Lenore reached out, opening her mouth to ask Lacus to inquire what happened, but didn't get to as she left as suddenly as she appeared. She found it puzzling that Cagalli was on the ship as well, considering that _Strike Rouge_ was berthed on the _Archangel_ , but with everything... Shaking her head slightly, she looked at her friends and brother before taking the invitation for what it was worth, and left.

* * *

_A few hours later..._

 

“Battle stations, battle stations! Set condition one! Pilots to your mobile suits! Battle stations, Battle stations! Set condition one! Pilots to your mobile suits!”

Cagalli immediately jolted awake the same time Athrun did, though she was already rolling off the bed and onto the floor in a half-crouch as she grabbed her half-scattered clothes and hurriedly dressed herself. She could hear Athrun doing the same, though the zippering sounds told her that he was putting on his flight suit. She needed to get back to the _Archangel_ to get her mobile suit and sortie with the others.

Jamming her foot into her boots, she was already headed towards the door as she took a quick glance back to see Athrun securing the clasps of the the neck harness within his flight suit. The door swished open and she floated out, with Athrun hot on her heels as both of them headed down the hall to the hangar bay.

The ship suddenly and quite violently shook, jarring both of them from the hand holds they had been holding onto. Looking at Athrun in alarm, both of them pushed off from the side of the walls as the ship continued to rock with the impacts. They were definitely under attack from something.

They were joined moments later by Kira, who tossed Athrun his helmet, and as they continued towards the hangar bay, the four pilots from the future slid in as well. Lacus met all of them halfway to the hangar bay, headed to the bridge herself as she briefly said, “Blue Cosmos is attacking.”

“But how... where did they come from?” Lenore asked. “There's no where to hide between here and the Earth!”

She saw Lacus shake her head, but no more words were exchanged as she separated from them and headed to the bridge. They continued onto the hangar bay, and as soon as she cleared the threshold, she quickly reached over to briefly squeeze Athrun's hand before letting go and made her way to the shuttle. It was time to fight for the peace they wanted to keep.

~~~

“ _Freedom_ , launching!”

Athrun saw the launch indicator on his side of the launch bays flicker green. “ _Justice_ , launching!” he declared just as he snapped the throttles forward as the launch rail sent him accelerating into the pitched battle in space. Mashing the foot pedals to his left, he rocketed away and spun as he took aim and fired his M20 Lupus at the nearest mobile suit that had been pursuing a Zaku belonging to ZAFT.

“ _Silverbird_ , launching!” Inga's voice crackled over the com.

It exploded as he continued to hear the chatter of the open battle com channel. Turning his attention to another strange-looking mobile suit who had suddenly decided to charge at him.

“ _Sentinel_ launching!” Lenore announced.

He peppered it with is GAU1 20 mm before unsheathing one of his blades and cleanly sliced through he as he charged past, just as a streak of white zipped by him, leaving a trail of exploding debris to his right.

“ _Vanguard_ , launching!” he heard Yuki declare. “Battle data on it's way.”

Two more mobile suits flew at him as dodged and weaved their attacks. Bringing his M20 to bear again as he accelerated out of their range before flipping _Justice_ around in a tight corkscrew. He sheathed the saber as he reached up and yanked the left Bassel with his right hand, and threw it towards the mobile suit on his left. It dodged and ducked the initial throw, but he was already firing his M20 at the right mobile suit. It exploded just as the Bassel boomeranged back, slicing through the leg of the other mobile suit.

“Haumea...there's so much...” he heard Nicolai say over another com channel that linked _Eternal_ 's and _Archangel_ 's mobile suits together. He could hear a hint of panic in the young man's voice.

With the suit he was currently fighting against partially disabled, Athrun fired another round of the GAU1s to finish the mobile suit off. He caught the Bassel in his right hand and put it back on his left shoulder. They needed the data on where the Blue Cosmos suits were coming from, especially since they were all caught in a dirty debris field. Keying the com, he said, “Listen to me, Nicolai. Concentrate--” He paused for a moment to launch his Fathom-00 to where _Silverbird_ looked to be briefly overwhelmed by some enemies.

“Cluster them. Tell us where to push them together. We need to destroy as many as possible--” he said as he then snapped to his right and jammed on the throttle to join Kira and the nest of enemies he was in the midst of fighting.

Firing off several shots with his M20 towards two mobile suits that were about to ambush Kira, they backed off quickly as he briefly pushed on the throttle to continue to pursue them. Sending _Justice_ into a roll to avoid their efforts to concentrate their shots, he maneuvered them right into the crosshairs of his returning Fathom-00.

“You studied many of these mobile suits, Nicolai,” Kira chimed in over the com. “You know most of their capabilities. Use that--”

Athrun pressed the trigger to fire all machine guns on the flyer as he briefly saw Kira fire his GAU2 to keep another mobile suit from getting too close. The two mobile suits in front of him exploded into a spectacular but brief fireball as he reunited with his support unit. He brought up up his beam shield to bear as he saw the specks of light coming towards him from the left.

As the impact against his shield subsided, he could see that the _Eternal_ was firing all rail guns while trying to make its way to the cluster of ZAFT and OMNI ships that were slowly being surrounded by an overwhelming number of Blue Cosmos mobile suits. The _Archangel_ was trying to break off from its own set of harassers to help the _Eternal_.

“Astrays and _Rouge_ , concentrate firepower towards the cluster harassing the _DeGrasse_ , _Nymeria_ , and _Gagarin_ ,” he heard Nicolai say a few moments later, though there was still some quaver in his voice. “ _Sentinel_ and _Silverbird_ , get clear past the equatorial sector and punch a hole into and behind that cluster. _Freedom_ and _Justice_ , strike the secondary cluster once the Astrays and _Rouge_ whittle them down.”

Battle data – real-time battle data. They finally had it, and it was no longer confined to a ship issuing orders to cover sectors. Just as he saw the Astrays and _Strike Rouge_ bunch their shot into one area that lit up like a super-heated laser, several enemy mobile suits exploded. It forced Blue Cosmos to crowd further away from the peppering that the ZAFT and OMNI ships were giving them.

Another enormous explosion came from the moon-facing portion of the cluster of enemies before he saw _Sentinel_ rocket through. The speedy mobile shot right past them, dragging _Silverbird_ with her as both he and Kira immediately engaged the multiple target locks from on high.

Firing at the same time, the multi-colored laser beams pierced the clustered enemy suits all at once, sending a shockwave of explosions half a ring around the herded ships. It was enough to give the various ZAFT and OMNI mobile suits room to push back, as a cheer from several pilots cut across the open battle com.

Their brief victory was short-lived through as the remaining Blue Cosmos mobile strung themselves out – they would not fall for that trick again. At that moment, a new voice also joined into _Eternal-Archangel_ com line. “SOS from _Kusanagi_ ,” Lacus stated. “They and OMNI reinforcements are under attack by what looks to be Blue Cosmos mobile suits as well. They also said that they caught something on long range sensors toward L3 – something big. ETA to Earth, twelve hours.”

“The asteroid!” Yuki's shouted across the com.

“We can't stay here,” Cagalli began.

“Go!” Kira ordered before Athrun could do so, tossing _Freedom_ 's M20 and beam shield towards Cagalli. “Take _Archangel_ and go! _Vanguard_ , _Sentinel_ , and _Silverbird_ , go with them! They need the battle data more than we do.”

“The _Eternal_ and us... we'll catch up,” he agreed, throwing his M20 and beam shield at _Sentinel_ , who caught both objects, as he pulled out his beam sabres. “Go! We'll keep these guys off of you.”

Without another glance at the other mobile suits, both he and Kira plunged back into the fight. As he plowed head on into two mobile suits in front of him, he heard the com line crackle with Cagalli's reluctant agreement before the line snapped silent. Driving his left beam sabre into the leg of the left mobile suit, he twisted to raise his right beam saber up to block another. As he felt _Freedom_ back into him, he opened a private line to Kira.

“Ready, Kira?” he asked as he saw out of the corner of his screen, _Archangel_ picking up the rest of their allies, along with a couple of ZAFT and OMNI ships attempting to break off to join the _Archangel_ in their rush back to Earth.

“Ready,” his friend stated.

Both of them gunned their engines to maximum as they suddenly shot out of the cluster of enemy mobile suits that were gathering around them. As Athrun flew and twisted until _Justice_ was placed directly in the path between the _Archangel_ and its allies, and the enemy mobile suits who had broken off to pursue the ships. He sheathed the sabers for one brief moment.

Acquiring as many signals as he could, both he and Kira fired all of their beam weaponry once again. Even before the bright explosions died, he was already charging back into what remained of the enemy mobile suits, sabers out once again. In his mind, there was only one singular purpose to this fight: to make sure that not one of those Blue Cosmos mobile suits from the future did anything to harm the present.

* * *

_C.E. 96, Debris Belt..._

 

_We know when and where the asteroid appears, Kira. All I have to do is get in, destroy the engines, and then return here. The rest will take care of itself._

“Kira.”

Kira snapped out of his thoughts as he glanced down towards the imaged com line he had open. “Sorry,” he apologized, giving Athrun a sheepish smile that he hoped was enough to sate his friend's curiosity.

It had taken a long time, but they had finally cracked the secrets to the strange shielding system that had been attached to the engines on the piece of Junius 7. That knowledge wasn't even several hours old, or had been distributed to OMNI and ZAFT yet, when both he and Athrun had immediately absconded with the data. As soon as they had gotten clear, they had flown their mobile suits from the _Eternal_ , which had been called to Heliopolis II earlier to provide patrol assistance.

Now in the Debris Belt, both of them had added the valuable frequency data needed to destroy the strange shielding on the asteroid into their mobile suits. The nominal plan was for Athrun to go back in time, destroy the shielding and engines and return to here. The alternate – and one he really hoped would not be the case – was for Athrun to get into the asteroid before their past selves in _Freedom_ and _Justice_ could join the fight, and teleport the asteroid and its surroundings back. That was what Kira's added data into his mobile suit was for – the worst case scenario.

They had little time, relatively speaking, to execute this mission, because even with their upgraded mobile suits, those people they worked with in Heliopolis II were already on the pursuit. He knew that he would be pushing the graces of their allies to allow them to explain their actions; Athrun even more so because of his Morgenroete ties. However, he would defend his friend from anything, especially after finding out just how many times they themselves had tried to change the fate of the four pilots.

“Interface established with the time machine,” he heard Athrun say as he saw him press a few things off screen. “Inputting target date: November 18th, C.E. 73. Local coordinates: two-nine-five-dash-four-two by six-three-five-dash-seven-three by one-three-nine-dash-four-four.”

He saw his friend look up and say after a moment's pause, “Ready to execute.”

“Good luck,” he said, hoping that his voice did not betray the nervousness he felt.

“See you in a few,” Athrun stated and a moment later, a blinding light filled Kira's vision. As soon as it died down, _Justice_ , or _Infinite_ _Justice_ as it was tagged by its full name, was no longer in front of him.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	10. Chapter 9: A Fleeting Moment in Time

**Chapter 9: A Fleeting Moment in Time**

_November 18 th, C.E. 73, High Above The Earth, In Space..._

 

_Strike Rouge_ 's Igelstellungs peppered the hybrid Astray-Zaku that had suddenly appeared in front of her, swinging its beam saber in a wild attempt to slice her from head to navel. Cagalli gunned the engines of her mobile suit and flew just far enough away to bring up _Freedom_ 's M20 rifle to fire a couple of shots. The mobile suit exploded, but her attention was already diverted away by two solid impacts against her back as she was flung forward with the momentum.

Swinging around, she brought up the borrowed shield to block another volley of beam rifle fire at her as she pushed the throttles forward. Slotting the rifle into the hole on the shield's sides, she angled her mobile suit so that most of it was hiding behind the shield. Firing the rifle as the mobile suit in front of her tried to back away as fast as it could from her charge, she managed to blast its rifle out of its hands. Deslotting her rifle, she sharply turned to her left, swinging the end of her shield into the head of the mobile suit, bashing it off of its shoulders.

Without any visual guidance, the enemy mobile suit was dead in the water, and thus she left it alone as she flew away. Keying the com, she said, “ _Vanguard_ , any sign of that asteroid?”

“I still can't find it! The sensors... they're all whacked by the debris field and I think... possibly with interference from the neural links!” she heard Nicolai say as she took a couple of shots at a cluster of mobile suits that were trying to gain a leg up on the _Kusanagi_ by firing at her engines. They scattered just enough for the ship to aim and pick a couple of them off with its own missiles.

Muttering a curse under her breath, she knew that there was nothing she could do about the interference from the many reflective objects within the edge of the Debris Belt they were fighting at. What forces they had here were trying to whittle down the Blue Cosmos mobile suits as best as possible, but it was proving harder than any of them had anticipated. Whomever flew the suits, even with their neural link interface, were better than what OMNI had thrown at them and ZAFT two years ago.

Cagalli continued to fly above the fray for one moment, spinning her mobile suit around in a complete circle, trying to search for any sign of the silhouette of the asteroid that the _Kusanagi_ and a few other ships had initially spotted. It was a useless gesture though, and as she refocused her thoughts, she took a deep breath and plunged back into the fight.

~~~

He had expected some sensation of a sort, maybe a pulling at his stomach, or even a tell-tale flip-flop that indicated a gravitational shift of sort when he activated the time machine. But there was no such feeling as one moment, _Freedom_ – or rather, the new designation that had been tacked onto the heavily upgraded version of its name sake, _Strike Freedom_ – filled his screen for a moment, and then at next moment there were only the glittering fields of debris around him. For just a split second, Athrun thought that the machine had not worked, but the sudden explosion of com chatter that filled his ears indicated otherwise.

Immediately pressing the button to activate his mirage colloid, he took a deep breath and manually flicked the mute-all switch. He could not risk accidentally talking into the com, not even if he really wanted to. His being here was already either creating some strange paradox that he hoped that he would be able to repair, or was skirting the edge of one.

~~~

On board the dual-piloted mobile suit, _Vanguard_ 's momentum forward was suddenly reversed as its main pilot, Yuki, and let loose anther volley of missiles from the tubes hidden within its forearms. It's secondary pilot, Nicolai, suddenly saw some odd pop up on the edges of its field; its IFF broadcasting yellow for Orb for one brief moment before it disappeared as quick as it had appeared.

“ZGMF-X19A _Infinite Justice_?” Nicolai softly questioned, frowning for a moment before pushing the strange blip out of his thoughts. There was no time to puzzle over strange glitches – he had an asteroid to find.

~~~

_Infinite Justice_ 's long ranged sensors were picking up the nearest battles to where he had appeared, and as the images popped upon his screen, Athrun could see the speedy _Sentinel_ zipping in and around a cluster of mobile suits. The mobile suit was causing them to turn towards it in an attempt to swat it out of the way like a fly. That gave _Silverbird_ every opportunity to bombard the inattentive mobile suits with her heavy beam weaponry.

Meanwhile, further away and nearer to both the _Kusanagi_ and _Archangel_ was _Strike Rouge_. She had two Astrays tailing her, providing cover as the three mobile suits worked in tandem to keep the enemy from overwhelming _Vanguard_ , who was at the center of it all.

Athrun could feel a slight constriction winding its way around his heart in grief, as his eyes followed _Strike Rouge_ 's fight. As much as he wanted to jump in and help, he knew that he could not. To directly contact or even interfere at this point in time was to definitely going to cause more problems than he could fix. He had to let go, had to remind himself that this Cagalli of the present was not his Cagalli that he had lost. She was not yet the leader that everyone on Earth and the PLANTs respected and admired – she was still growing into the role.

Whether it was fortune, luck, or the fact that he had deliberately programmed the jump into the perfect time, the com chatter suddenly crescendo into a raging cacophony of noise. His attention was drawn away from Cagalli's mobile suit as he dialed down the volume. Even his mobile suit's sensors lit up like a festive tree as the massive hulk of the asteroid suddenly appeared directly in the Debris Belt, zenith of where he remembered seeing it so long ago.

His proximity sensors also alerted him to two fast-moving objects coming in from outside of the Debris Belt. Nothing outside of the exclamations that were still being shouted across all com channels indicated who else was joining the fight, but Athrun grimly smiled as his IFF tagged the two mobile suits flying in. _Freedom_ and _Justice_ had arrived, and he knew that the _Eternal_ was only minutes behind them. All the players were finally in the field, and now it was time for him to get to work.

~~~

“Shit! We can't get to the engines--”

Kira could hear the prematurely cut off cries of several mobile suits that had tried to approach the massive hulk of a rock to destroy the massive engines that had clearly been installed into the rear of it. From the looks of the asteroid, it was much larger than what the combined firepower of his and Athrun's mobile suits, along with anything that they could fire at, could destroy.

Blue Cosmos mobile suits swarmed all over the incoming asteroid that had suddenly dropped its mirage colloid – at least he thought it was a mirage colloid. Both he and Athrun were still too far away for their beam weaponry to cause effective damage against the mobile suits. Still, that did not stop him from willing _Freedom_ to fly faster towards them.

“Pick off as many as you can and get under the asteroid!” he heard Cagalli order. “ _Vanguard_ , give us optimal positions to stop this rock!”

Acknowledgments rang across the board as _Freedom_ and _Justice_ finally entered optimal firing range. Giving a nod to Athrun through their private image-com link, he heard a crackle as Athrun keyed in the general battle com, saying, “This is _Justice_ and _Freedom_ to all allies: scatter clear for a moment!”

Bringing the targeting solution up, Kira acquired as many targets as he could, and at the same time as Athrun did, pressed both buttons on the sides of his throttles. The combined beam weaponry from the two nuclear-powered mobile suits lanced through space, sending a brilliant splash of color across the screens of many mobile suits. The beams struck true, sending a brilliant lines of explosions down their paths of destruction.

As soon as the briefly intense fireballs died, he heard Nicolai say over the battle com, “Astrays, gather at sector two to twelve! Zakus to sectors twelve to twenty! Daggers to sectors twenty to two! _Silverbird_ , _Sentinel_ , follow us to the center! _Freedom_ and _Justice_ , destroy the engines if you can! Everyone at maximum thrust – it will still have mass and momentum without engines. The rest of you, keep Blue Cosmos off of us!”

“Roger,” he acknowledged, echoing many others agreement.

Reconfiguring his firing solution for a single, concentrated point, Kira yanked out his beam sabres. He decapitated and disarmed two blue Cosmos mobile suits that had survived the earlier combined fire as he flew by. Sheathing his sabres again, he halted several hundred meters above the brightly flaring engines of the asteroid. A few meters away, _Justice_ had also come to a halt.

Bringing all guns to bear, the steady beep of the solution being acquired at the weakest point in the structure that would cause a collapse on all other sections, before a tonal lock indicated that the target had been acquired. Firing at nearly the same time that Athrun did, he squinted as the flare of the engines and of both his and _Justice_ 's beam weaponry became a little to bright to look at. However, his stomach dropped in dread as the light finally died.

The engines were still active, and looked completely undamaged.

Something, some shielding that looked like a semi-transparent lattice of hexagonal structures flared pink for a moment before fading in color and disappeared into invisibility. It had some how blocked the combined firepower of two nuclear-powered mobile suits. “What...” he began.

“Bypass thirty percent from the reactor to the weapons, Kira,” he heard Athrun curtly order over their private com. “Hit it a second time.”

“Right,” he said, snapping out of his surprised fugue.

Making the necessary adjustments as he flipped a few switches within his cockpit, he heard the slight elevated whine and a beeping warning from the OS that alerted him to what he was doing. While it was dangerous to bypass direct nuclear power into the weaponry, it gave the weapons considerably more energy than their normal output. However, one of the major risks was that by directing such an incredible amount of power unregulated through the capacitors, there was the possibility of melting their weapons. Neither he nor Athrun would be left with any sort of weaponry, including their beam sabers, if they did this. Both _Freedom_ and _Justice_ would be reduced to chasing down enemy mobile suits in the remainder of the battle, and destroying them by hand.

It had to be done, and as the tonal lock blared across his ears, he fired. This time, even with his opacity on his face plate set to maximum, he definitely had to close his eyes. The impact of the beams against the engines was too bright to look at. Alarms sounded across the board as he opened his eyes and saw that even with the nuclear power bypass, the engines were still undamaged. His weapons though...

Silencing all alarms, diagnostics told him that most of his weapons were damaged and some had melted into slag. “Athrun,” he said over the private com line, “we have to--”

“I know,” his friend answered, as he turned his view port slightly to see that the weapons on _Justice_ were not looking well either. “If there is some nuclear device or something attached to the engines, it's not going to stop until it runs out of power.”

“Let's go,” he said, glancing at the timer that _Vanguard_ had sent out to all mobile suits.

Self-destructing on the surface would not destroy the asteroid at all, because of just how large it was. If both he and Athrun tried it, they could end up sending smaller, but just as deadly chunks of the asteroid scattering into the Earth. Their best route of action was to stop the whole asteroid now, and they had less than ninety seconds until it hit the atmosphere.

~~~

_Infinite Justice_ skimmed along the shadows of the Debris Belt, careful to stay out of sensor range of any mobile suit or ship engaged in battle, even though the mobile suit had a mirage colloid over it. It was only when the second shot that _Justice_ and _Freedom_ had taken the asteroid that caused it to flare as brightly as a second sun, that Athrun finally moved in.

Emergency calls were being sent across the battle com for all available mobile suits to cease combat operations and focus on pushing the asteroid away. Ships, including the _Archangel_ and _Eternal_ , were left by themselves to keep the rest of Blue Cosmos off of the allied mobile suit forces. He saw _Strike Rouge_ among those flying towards the asteroid, but there were two Blue Cosmos suits slowly gaining on her. She had no Astrays guarding her rear.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled both Bassels out from the shoulder holsters and threw them at the enemy mobile suits. They sliced into the enemy suits with ease, and rebounded towards him as the explosions behind _Strike Rouge_ pushed her forward more than what the engines were capable of. He immediately grabbed the two Bassels and jammed them back into the shoulder holsters just as he saw _Strike Rouge_ look around, wondering where he had attacked her pursuers from.

Halting his forward momentum as he arrived at the spot where _Freedom_ and _Justice_ had been, he watched Cagalli fly off to help the others beneath the asteroid. His own countdown clock, picked up from the stray transmission that _Vanguard_ had sent out earlier, indicated thirty-five seconds until the asteroid hit atmosphere.

Bringing all of his mobile suit's weapons to bear, he flicked the switch to localize the distribution of power. That power would feed through the specialized interface that had been programmed specifically to punch through the shielding. Acquiring tonal lock, he pressed both throttle's side triggers as his face plate automatically adjusted the polarity to maximum. Every single beam weaponry he had on his mobile suit lanced out at the shield, flaring against it brightly for just a moment before smashing through.

The explosion that ripped through the engines and secondary power sources surrounding the engines was a spectacular sight as he squinted slightly. The exclamations pouring through the com channels were even more ecstatic as he heard a great many cheers echo. Faintly smiling, he quickly reconfigured his mobile suit to shunt power where it needed to go. He needed to leave before any curious mobile suit or ship tried to pin point and expose him. No mirage colloid was going to help him now that he had clearly fired his weapons.

The asteroid was slowing down, and though he knew it would enter the atmosphere, it would not remain there long. He would not see his daughter die--

That thought slipped from his mind as he tried to remember why he thought his daughter would die, just as the time machine's interface popped up on the lower corner of his screen. Ah yes, now he knew why – it was because of what it had recorded, and of the strange stream of messages that Kira had showed him. Regardless, he still needed to leave.

With one final look at the asteroid before him, along with the smoking crater, he input the date and coordinates in which he had left Kira at. The others would bring the asteroid back – it was how he remembered they had left C.E. 73 to return to their time. Triggering the mechanism, he blinked in puzzlement as he continued to see the asteroid and the wreck of its engines, not of _Strike Freedom_ and the Debris Belt.

He pressed the button again. Nothing happened.

_Infinite Justice_ suddenly rocked forward as Athrun felt his harness dig into him, preventing him from flying out of his seat. Proximity alarms blared as he pushed both throttles forward to maximum and stomped on the pedals to dodge several concentrated volleys of beam weaponry. His mirage colloid was still active, but Blue Cosmos had triangulated his position from where he had fired his weapons.

He spun his mobile suit, but dared not fire back to give them more positional data. Still, they tracked him some how as he juked and jinxed—and then the realization hit him like a cold dousing of water – they were most likely sensing the time device on his mobile suit and using that to triangulate his position. That and the fact that the second device that had transported the asteroid and so many Blue Cosmos mobile suits, was probably more powerful than his own. He didn't think that an interference was possible, but this was Blue Cosmos and their impossible devices – anything was possible.

Out of the corner of his screen, he could see the mobile suits that had been gathered underneath the asteroid start to detach and fan out. He could not stay, could not remain up here in space fighting and dodging. Mirage colloid or not, he could not have people in C.E. 73 seeing his mobile suit – it would completely change the future beyond what he was already doing by being unable to leave.

Reaching up and flicking several switches as he continued to dodge the enemy mobile suits trying to shoot him dead, he brought all weapons to bear again and fired at the remnants of the engines. A large, gaping hole blew out, ejecting some material and debris into some of the Blue Cosmos forces that happened to be near it. This was not how he wanted it to be, but he had no other choice.

Diving down, he flew his mobile suit straight through the hole and into the asteroid. What was left of Blue Cosmos followed him in.

~~~

“ZGMF-X19A _Infinite Justice_...” Kira heard Nicolai whisper in awe a moment after he and most likely others, thought they had seen a flicker of a mirage colloid partially collapsing where Blue Cosmos had been firing at seemingly empty space. They were all far away to have not caught a full glimpse of the unknown mobile suit, but it seemed that _Vanguard_ 's sensors had caught its designation. “Haumea's knickers... the rumors were true...”

“Regardless, those mobile suits are after it, and whoever or whatever it is, it blew the engines out,” Athrun stated over the localized com.

“That's our way home,” Inga said. “It has to be. That asteroid had to have something within it to transport us back. We need to go in--”

Kira didn't even let the young woman finish her words as he gunned the engines on _Freedom_ to maximum. He had a nagging feeling in his gut that they needed to get in there fast and help the pilot of that mysterious mobile suit out. Diving into the hole, he was well aware that Athrun was on his heels, as he heard Cagalli order some of the Astrays to scour the area for anymore Blue Cosmos mobile suits.

“Gut feeling?” he heard Athrun say as he saw his image pop up on the lower corner of his screen, linked to their private com line.

“Yeah... weird feeling though,” he said.

“Me too,” his friend answered. “Take a right at the intersection.”

He nodded, wordlessly obeying the order, knowing that with the strange 'gut feeling' that both of them were experiencing, it was better to go on instinct right now through the narrow gauntlet of this hollowed asteroid. He could see no sign of life within the asteroid, but there were areas that they were flying through that looked similar to early, pre-colonization concepts of how a hollowed out asteroid could operate as a prefabricated colony.

“Wait, that ZGMF designation means that that mobile suit was ZAFT-built,” he heard Lenore state over the localized com frequency that linked Athrun, the four travelers, Cagalli, and him together. “I've never heard of them building such a mobile suit. Where did you hear that, Nicolai?”

“Just rumors,” the young man answered. “Some techs on Morgenroete's station were talking about seeing some weird stuff at L4.”

“But L4 is always home to vagrants and illegal research,” Inga answered. “There's always all sort of strange shit being seen there by passerbys.”

“Lacus had them rebuild _Justice_ and _Freedom_ at L4, didn't she?” Kira heard Athrun ask over their private line.

“Yes,” he answered as his gut feeling told him to take a sharp left and then right in the intersection up ahead. “That unknown mobile suit's name doesn't sit well with me.”

“A derivative of _Justice_?,” Athrun questioned. However before his friend could say anything else, Kira immediately halted as he passed by another intersection and saw several Blue Cosmos mobile suits idly standing in powered down mode near some platforms. Carefully slipping his mobile suit in, he looked around but could not see any people. The mobile suits didn't activate either.

“I think they got off here,” Nicolai stated. “I've devised a radar detector from the chip and am getting some tracking data. It's showing at least thirteen people heading towards what looks like the core of the place. I don't know if they're pursuing someone or not.”

“But we can't just leave the mobile suits here,” Cagalli pointed out. “Not when they have these neuro-links that can interfere with any electronics.”

“I can set up a low-level jamming field in this area,” Nicolai stated. “Just in case there are more people in this place where the radar can't pick them up.”

“Do it,” Athrun ordered as Kira saw him power down _Justice_ and pop the hatch open. He did the same to _Freedom_ before reaching towards the back of his seat to grab the gun that he kept there. Unlike Athrun, he had never been comfortable wearing a gun at his hip, even though during the war, there had been times when that would have been useful.

He pushed off the lip of his mobile suit. Turning slightly, he made his way towards Athrun, who was already pressed against a wall-like structure waiting for them while keeping an eye out. Halting himself, he glanced back up to see the others floating towards them. Cagalli, Inga, and Lenore had guns, though Inga and Lenore carried theirs like the professional soldiers they were. The only two who did not carry weapons were Yuki and Nicolai, though both were armed with data pads. While he was glad that his future-son was a civilian through and through, and did not join the military, the situation was dangerous enough that he wondered if he should arm the two.

He didn't get to voice his thoughts as he saw Athrun silently gesture with his hands towards Inga and Lenore. The two silently but swiftly scattered to different areas, checking the way before he saw Athrun float towards Nicolai and pluck the data pad out of his hands for a moment. Taking a quick look at what was displayed, Athrun then pushed back towards where he had been.

At that moment, Kira understood why no one was talking through the com lines – anything they said could be used to triangulate their positions and give them away to Blue Cosmos. The data pads themselves emitted EM fields, but he hoped that they were low enough to not be detected by the neural linked enemies.

He was sure that OMNI and ZAFT hand signals were different, but it seemed that Inga understood some of the hand signals being used as they pushed forward into the asteroid. The halls became narrower, more ship-like than the large areas where one could pilot mobile suits through. Kira followed behind Athrun, while keeping Cagalli close, while Nicolai and Yuki followed Lenore and Inga.

It was well within the structure, probably at least fifteen minutes after they had exited their mobile suits and begun their journey on foot, that they finally encountered their first dead body. The Blue Cosmos pilot had been shot through the head and neck – by who, no one knew, but Kira had to guess it most likely was the pilot of that unknown mobile suit. Since it was vacuum that surrounded them, none of them had heard the shots go off.

Continuing down the hall, there were two more bodies, shot through in a similar manner as the first one. Kira saw Athrun's eyes narrow slightly before he made a quick gesture towards Lenore. She suddenly took off as Athrun remained where he was. Inga had stopped as well, though he clearly saw the confused looks appear on Yuki and Nicolai's faces.

Lenore suddenly appeared from another corner down the hall, holding out five splayed fingers. Kira saw Athrun nod and guessed that there were five more bodies down that way. The total was eight out of the thirteen that Nicolai had initially sighted on his improvised radar. Athrun gestured for all of them to continue, though instead of being as spread out as they were, Inga had herded them into a single fire, with her following directly behind Athrun, and Lenore taking the rear, mashing Cagalli, Nicolai, and Yuki into the center of their line somewhere.

Kira peeked out as soon as they rounded the hall as they suddenly stopped again. The remaining five Blue Cosmos pilots that they had tracked were bunched somewhat loosely together in this hall. All of them were right outside where there was an open door that illuminated this corridor much more than any others. There was no more need to hide or be careful – that unknown pilot had taken care of all thirteen of his or her pursuers.

He floated forward until he was parallel to Athrun. Putting a hand on his friend's shoulders, he opened his mouth to say something over the com line, but Athrun immediately turned his head and shook his head no. They still had to maintain silence, and a moment later, he found out why. Pushing the bodies gently to the side, he saw Athrun snap the safety off his gun as he did the same and followed him until they got to the lip of the entrance to the brightly lit room.

As soon as his friend stepped in, he was right on his heels, pointing his gun forward as both of them saw debris floating by, and the strangest thing just beyond the entrance and near the center of the room. It was a burnished silver cylinder that ran from floor to ceiling, though there seemed to be a multitude of cables connected to the base of it. He also became gradually aware that there were a few dead bodies in the room as well, floating off in the corners. The bodies looked as if they had been flash-frozen, not shot.

“Who are you?” Athrun demanded over an open com channel, as Kira turned to see that Athrun had his gun pointed at a person sitting in the right corner of the first row of consoles nearest to the door.

Surprisingly, the pilot was wearing a derivation of the Orb flight suit colors with a completely opaque face plate, but seemed quite unfazed at the fact that there was a gun pointed at him. Instead of answering, Kira saw him gesture towards the other consoles, as if the pilot needed help with something on those consoles. Something about this pilot seemed familiar... Kira immediately safed his gun and holstered it before floating to Athrun.

Reaching out, he caught Athrun's attention and shook his head. “I don't think the pilot means us any harm.”

“Oh hey... wow,” Yuki's astonished tone floated across the open channel as both he and Athrun glanced over to see the young man float in with a wide-eyed look at the thing in the center of the room. Still, the unknown pilot did nothing and continued to type away.

“What... is that?” Inga said, as she too, sheathed her gun and approached the cylinder that was at least two people in width.

Seeing that the unknown pilot was not a threat, Kira saw Athrun finally safe his gun and holstered it. The two of them, along with Cagalli, floated to the nearest workstations near the door as they heard Nicolai say, “I think... I think this is our ticket home—hey! Stop kicking it, Lenore!”

“What... it's metal,” the young woman answered in a careless tone. “Whatever is inside is probably well shielded and protected. I mean, look at this control room. The only thing that went wrong was the ventilation. It's got to have its own power source. This is probably the heart of whatever time machine thing that brought us here.”

Apart from a quibble or so coming from Nicolai and Yuki who seemed to be arguing about something related to this strange time machine interface, or at least that was what Kira wanted to name it, no one talked for the next few minutes. The coding that occupied his attention was complex, incredible, and dare he say it – inspiring. He had never seen such coding before, even though the OS powering it was oddly simple. How could Blue Cosmos have built such a thing? He didn't even think Coordinators, for all of their genetic enhancements, could build something this complex. When in time did Blue Cosmos built this?

He had so many questions, but no answers, until Inga suddenly said, “Uh... guys...” Yuki and Nicolai were already rushing to her side, as the young OMNI soldier continued to say, “I swear... I didn't touch a thing... it just popped up.”

“Fifteen minutes,” he heard Lenore mutter, as he, Cagalli, and Athrun floated over to where the four were huddled at a console. “But to what?” Peeking over their shoulders, he saw that there was a countdown clock, though it looked like all the diagnostics that Nicolai and Yuki were inputting into their connected data pads were doing nothing to stop the clock.

“Cagalli! Kira!” Athrun's sudden shout over the channel alerted Kira to danger as he turned to see a Blue Cosmos pilot bracing herself against the entrance. She was in the midst of leveling the barrel of a rifle at them.

Kira immediately tried to draw his gun, even as he saw Athrun in the midst of drawing his weapon as well, while reaching for Cagalli to fling her behind him. Both of them were just a hair slower than the unknown pilot who had immediately rocketed from where he had been sitting, just as a silvery, knife-like object flew from the pilot's hand. It impacted and cracked open the enemy pilot's face plate just as she opened fire.

The pilot immediately died from the lack of oxygen, though her rocketing back into the hallway from the force of her gunfire seemed to break her body within the flight suit. As for the unknown pilot, he crashed back into a console, though not at the force the enemy pilot did. It had only been from the reactive force from throwing the knife.

Kira didn't even get to flick the safety off of his gun when the threat was completely neutralized, though he was frowning slightly. Something about the way the pilot threw the knife seemed oddly familiar...

However, Athrun did break out of the huddle as soon as he made sure Cagalli was all right and peeked out to clear the hall. Kira turned his attention to the unknown pilot as Lenore rushed over and settled the pilot down to the ground. Droplets of frozen blood, floated up from the right side of the pilot – he had been struck by the bullet. “Shit,” he softly cursed as he looked around for a medical kit of sorts. There was a hole in the pilot's suit, but because he was also bleeding, whatever blood was leaking out was acting like a seal as well.

“Don't, Kira,” Lenore said, before he could move to help. “Don't worry. We got this. I think I know what that countdown is – that time machine thing... whatever it is, is about to activate. You guys need to go.”

“What, now?!” Cagalli exclaimed before glancing at the clock. “Thirteen minutes...”

“How far?” he asked, immediately taking his sister by the hand and tugged her away from the others.

“I don't know,” Yuki said, looking up at them. “But I think maybe we were about five hundred meters or so away from the piece of Junius 7 when we got caught in it. Better get everyone out there as far away as possible from this thing. Otherwise...”

“None of you are going to exist....” Cagalli whispered as Kira floated both himself and her back to where Athrun was at the entrance. “You guys...”

“It's all right,” he said, trying to reassure his sister as he felt a strange sort of not-quite-sorrow well up in his stomach. He would miss them, but yet he knew that once they returned to their time, he would see them again. “We'll see them in a few minutes when they get back to the future.”

“Yeah, but we'll be all old and grey,” Athrun chimed in in an attempt to cheer Cagalli up, as he took her from him and led her out.

“Dad, wait!” Kira heard Yuki say over the com before he could cross the threshold and into the hall. Turning, he caught a data pad being thrown towards him, but it didn't look like it belonged to either Nicolai or his future-son. “Take it,” he heard Yuki say before the young man gestured to the pilot who was being tended to by Lenore. “That dude thinks you'll need it.”

Kira wanted to protest, but over the localized com, he heard Athrun shout his name, insisting that they needed to leave now. Taking one last look at the four of them and the wounded pilot, he nodded, clipped the data pad to his waist, and left.

~~~

“Haumea's blessings, Dad,” he heard his daughter say over the channel that had been opened between the four young pilots and him. “What the hell...”

Athrun lowered the polarization on his face plate until there was only the bare minimum as he heard Yuki's rather coarse exclamation before three more pairs of eyes peered over at him. “I wasn't trying to cause a paradox,” he said as he eased himself up, though he could not prevent a grimace from appearing on his face as the pain from the grazing that he had sustained tugged at him. “I hate being shot,” he muttered as he braced himself against the console.

“You... you saved Mom's life...” Nicolai whispered.

He remained silent at that as he took a deep breath to not only try to ease the pain he felt from the wound, but also from the memories that had surfaced, especially from the younger version of Kira's words to Cagalli. This was the only time that Cagalli ever got to see her children grown up, and it pained him greatly to think about how little time she had spent with them in the days that they had been stuck in the past.

“You need to input in the date and coordinates over there,” he said, gesturing to the console that his younger self had been working at. “Lock it in before the timer runs out. Otherwise, we'll be stuck somewhere else in time.”

“Wait... so there's two time machines, sir?” Inga asked, suddenly snapping her gloved fingers, though with vacuum, no one was able to hear it. “Is that how you were able to get here, Mr. Dino?”

“Yes,” he curtly answered.

“How does it work then?” Yuki asked.

At the same time, Nicolai asked, “What are the date and coordinates?”

Ignoring Yuki's inquiry, he floated over to where his son was. Stopping just shy of floating next to him, he said, “August 20th, C.E. 96. Local coordinates: six-two-five-dash-three-seven by two-three-one-dash-seven-nine by eight-eight-nine-dash-five-four.”

~~~

Out in space, far and away Kira looked at the asteroid through _Freedom_ 's long-ranged sensors. Though the view was slightly blurry, given just how far they all were from the asteroid, he thought that it was about time for the asteroid to disappear or do whatever it was going to do to return back to its proper place in time. And just as the thought left his mind, a blinding light enveloped the entire asteroid, as if it were a nuclear explosion of sorts.

He squinted, but as quick as it had appeared, it suddenly disappeared. He blinked away the afterimages – there was nothing left in that area of space. Everything was completely gone, even the debris from the battle that had taken place near that area. Whatever and however that time machine worked, it worked... at least he hoped it did.

“I'm going to miss them,” he heard Cagalli say over the four-way com channel he had opened between Athrun, Lacus, Cagalli, and himself.

“They'll be returning to our lives soon,” Lacus answered in an optimistic tone. “Somewhere in the near future, we'll see them again, though not as they had been. However brief their appearance was now, tells us that there is hope for peace in the future.”

For that, Kira couldn't help but smile, even though his cheerful thoughts were partially tampered by the troubling thoughts as to just how Blue Cosmos did what they tried to do.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	11. Epilogue: Reverie's Edge, Memories' Depths

**Epilogue: Reverie's Edge, Memories' Depths**

_C.E. 96, Debris Belt..._

 

It was the blindingly bright light that shone through even his closed eyes, rather than the insistent proximity alert that woke him up from his relatively short nap. Kira had not even closed his eyes for a full minute before he opened them again to see the light fading and the familiar hulk of the asteroid floating a few hundred meters before him. Activating _Strike Freedom_ from its dormant mode and powering up the phase-shift armor, he slowly flew around the inert asteroid, looking for any signs of Blue Cosmos mobile suits.

While he remembered that he had been sure that they had destroyed all the mobile suits outside of the asteroid in that battle so long ago, it was the inside that he never knew if they completely cleared out. He fuzzily remembered that one of the children had counted thirteen pilots. But there had been fourteen Blue Cosmos pilots – one who had nearly killed Cagalli before she had been saved by the unknown pilot. Back then, he wasn't too sure who the unknown pilot was, but he knew now – Athrun, or at least the older version of Athrun he knew well – had killed the fourteenth pilot.

Suddenly, his com crackled as he dialed into a localized channel and heard, “... Kira, do you copy? _Freedom_ , do you copy? Kira, do you copy?”

Keying the channel, he answered, “I copy loud and clear. Where are you guys?”

“Making our way out,” he heard Athrun answer, as he halted over the enormous crater that had been home to the engines that had pushed the asteroid on its path.

“Please don't shoot us, Mr. Yamato,” he heard Inga chime in.

“Dad's not going to shoot you, Inga. You're my girlfriend! You're family!” Yuki protested.

“Dad's injured, Uncle Kira--” Nicolai began.

“I'm fine,” Athrun insisted. “It's only a grazing.”

“That wound did look kind of bad, if I remember correctly,” he said as he saw some shadows moving at the bottom of the engine crater, where there were a series of large tunnels that led into the asteroid's interior.

“Haumea's knickers, my brain's going to melt if I try to think about time travel anymore,” he heard Lenore grumble over the line.

Kira couldn't help but bark in laughter before saying, “Welcome home, all of you. I can see your shadows now.” As soon as the last of those words left his lips, his long range sensors beeped. Zooming into what it picked up, he saw that there were three ships approaching: one ZAFT, one Orb, and one OMNI. Muting the localized channel, he opened a private one to Athrun, saying, “Athrun.”

“Yeah?” he heard his friend reply as _Sentinel_ emerged first from within the crater, followed by _Vanguard_ , and then _Silverbird_. Finally, _Infinite Justice_ was the last to emerge, though by then, Kira had completely disconnected the localized line to the children – he did not need their exclamations of awe at his or Athrun's mobile suits to distract him.

“They're here,” he stated.

“We got them back – all four of them,” Athrun quietly answered. “That's all that matters to me.”

“I know,” he answered. “I'm always with you, until the very end.”

~~~

A brief smile appeared on Athrun's face as he heard Kira's words and saw the commitment in his friend's eyes. The wound at his side was hurting more now that he was back inside the pressurized environment of his cockpit, but he did not let it bother him. He and Kira had done it, done the impossible and saved all four pilots. As his IFF tagged the incoming ships, the _Bartolomeo_ , _Kusanagi_ , and _Cygnus_ , he could hear the chatter that the four were having amongst themselves about what had happened. That chatter though, was starting to die down as they noticed that both he and Kira were not moving forward to greet the incoming ships.

Disconnecting the com line to the four, he kept his hands on the throttles of his mobile suit, and his thumbs not quite on the triggers to fire all of his weapons. While he was confident that none of the three ships would even try to outright attack them, one never knew what was going to happen when a gross violation of the treaty had been deliberately triggered. Even with the massive amount of firepower _Infinite Justice_ and _Strike Freedom_ held, cooler heads would still be twitchy.

The _Bartolomeo_ launched its mobile suits first, and unsurprisingly, Athrun saw that in addition to the three elite pilots that she carried – four if Lenore was to be counted among them – Yzak had launched as well. It was good to see that _Duel_ was still kept in good condition, considering the mobile suit was well over twenty-five years old. It was positively ancient when compared to what is IFF tagged as: _Meridian_ , _Valkyrie_ , and _Minuteman_ as the newer ZAFT mobile suits. The _Kusanagi_ had launched eight Astrays, while the _Cygnus_ had launched _Albion_ and six Daggers.

“Hey, what's going on?” he heard Yuki state over the general com channel just as the ZAFT, OMNI, and Orb mobile suits powered up their weapons and pointed it directly at both him and Kira. None of the weapons were pointed at _Vanguard_ , _Sentinel_ , or _Silverbird_.

An image from the bridge of the _Kusanagi_ popped up on his screen, with the broadcast being sent over the localized frequency of those gathered around. Chairwoman Canaver, along with Chief Representative Seiran, and Prime Minister Stephanopolos were standing on the bridge of the Orb ship. Sitting at the helm was Kisaka, though he did not look pleased at all and was instead, looking off to the side, as if he could not bear to watch what was about to happen.

“On behalf of the allied peacekeeping forces, we are ordering the pilots of _Strike Freedom_ and _Infinite Justice_ to surrender themselves and their mobile suits,” he heard Seiran state. “Kira Yamato and Alex Dino, you are both under arrest for the gross violation of Section Twenty-Nine-dot-Ten of the Earth-PLANT Armistice Treaty revised in C.E. 73, which forbids the building of new or modification of nuclear-powered mobile suits. Failure to submit to surrender will result in the usage of deadly force.”

Seiran paused for a second, though to Athrun, it looked as if he was not keen on further reading the charges being laid against them. In that moment's pause, a squelching noise fizzled over the com channels, as a jammer was immediately deployed towards where the _Vanguard_ , _Sentinel_ , and _Silverbird_ were. Though silenced, he was glad that none of the three mobile suits looked as if they were going to move or assist him or Kira. The odds would have been against them anyways, especially when there were many weapons being trained on _Strike Freedom_ and _Infinite Justice_.

“Additional charges,” Seiran continued, glancing down at the data pad before looking back up, “are as follows: the theft of proprietary data from Heliopolis II with regards to critical research being performed, falsification of records concerning shipments of top-secret materials, and finally, abuse of authority concerning military personnel and resources.”

“Please, Mr. Yamato and Mr. Dino,” Stephanopolos said as soon as Seiran was done, “don't--”

“The fact that we brought these four pilots _and_ their mobile suits back from where they disappeared to doesn't even factor into your judgments?” Kira angrily interrupted.

“Y-yes,” the Prime Minister began, “it does, and while we are extremely grateful, that still does not--”

“Where is my wife?” Kira cut in again, his tone quite cold. “Where is Lacus Clyne?”

“She and the crew of the _Eternal_ have been placed under arrest, Mr. Yamato,” Canaver stated. “They have submitted peacefully to the charges laid out against them, and we hope that both of you will do the same. We do not wish to fire upon you.”

Athrun saw Kira turn his head slightly over towards him through their private image-com channel, before wordlessly tilting his head as if thinking about his options. He knew that look, and gave him a small nod in return. It was time – everything that Kira, Lacus, and he had worked for since Cagalli's death – it was time to finally close the chapter on the long shadow war they had waged. This would be their only chance to flush all extremists on both sides – Natural and Coordinators – out into the open.

“If you're going to arrest us, Prime Minister Stephanopolos, Chairwoman Canaver, and Chief Representative Seiran,” he said as he let go of his mobile suit's right throttle and reached up to undo the neck clasp on his flight suit. Reaching into his flight suit, he wrapped his hand around the object hanging around his neck and pulled the cord apart. “At least get our names correct for the official record.”

Holding up the object by the cord, Athrun let the two items on the end of it drop so that it was clearly shown through the image-com channel to the leaders. One was the coral amulet that came with the necklace, the other was the winged pin he had received so long ago. “You are arresting Kira Yamato of Orb, and Athrun Zala of ZAFT Special Forces.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

FINI

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What started out as a concept fic for me to play around with ideas for other fics in different fandoms and my original stories, unexpectedly turned out to be this. I will probably write a sequel, given that there's a few political concepts for other fics that I want to test in this fic to see if they will work. But, I hoped you enjoyed my small, and humble contribution to the Gundam SEED fandom. Thanks for reading!


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